BP prepares for clean-up as reports say oil has reached US shore

30 April 2010 14:45  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS News)--BP may soon set in motion a major onshore clean-up operation after the US Coast Guard said on Friday that it has received unconfirmed reports that oil spilled from the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico had already reached the US shore.

Since last week BP has been running a massive offshore response to fight the oil spill after the rig, located southeast of New Orleans, suffered a huge explosion on 20 April in which 11 workers went missing and are now presumed dead.

Efforts to stem the flow of oil from the well, currently estimated at up to 5,000 bbl/day, were continuing, with six remotely-operated vehicles attempting to activate the blow-out preventer on the sea bed, the company said.

BP said it was too early to quantify the total costs associated with the incident, but current efforts to contain the spill and secure the well were costing an estimated $6m (€4.6m) per day.

The US government has announced a state of emergency and president Barack Obama told BP it was "ultimately responsible" for the cleaning-up costs.

The company was attempting to contain the spill both by skimming and collecting oil, applying dispersants and carrying out controlled burns on parts of it.

"We are doing absolutely everything in our power to eliminate the source of the leak and contain the environmental impact of the spill," BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, said.

In the meantime, however, the sheen had been moving steadily closer to the shore and there were reports it had already reached the coast, although these were yet to be officially confirmed, the US Coast Guard told ICIS news.

On Friday BP said it had already installed 80,000ft of marine protection booms with an additional 300,000ft ready to be deployed.

The company was also setting up response bases in the potentially affected states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to help coordinate aid efforts, it said.

A subsea collection system to funnel leaking oil to the surface for treatment was expected to be deployed in the next few weeks, the company added.

Last week BP announced that its first-quarter profits more than doubled to £3.5bn, but these positive results were quickly overshadowed by news of the explosion.

Since news of the incident broke, BP's share price has fallen by around 12%.

On Friday at 11:45 GMT shares were trading at 577.30p, down 78.1p from its 20 April share price of 655.40p.

($1 = €0.76)

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By: Elaine Mills
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