After failing again to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum (BP) scrambled yesterday to make some progress in ending the spill that US President Barack Obama's top energy adviser said was the biggest environmental disaster the country has ever faced
After failing again to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum (BP) scrambled yesterday to make some progress in ending the spill that US President Barack Obama'su00a0 top energy adviser said was the biggest environmental disaster the country has ever faced.
Six weeks after the spill, oil giant BP said that its latest plan to cap the well wouldn't capture all the crude fouling the Gulf. And the relief wells currently being drilled -- which are supposed to be a better long-term solution -- won't be done for at least two months.
"Well, the relief well at the end of August is certainly the end -- the end point on this game," Robert Dudley, BP's managing director, said. "But we failed to wrestle the beast to the ground yesterday."
That would be in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins Tuesday. The crude likely won't affect the formation of storms, but the cyclones could push the oil deeper into coastal marshes and estuaries and turn the oil into a crashing black surf.
20,000 barrels of oil that have been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico every day. 1 barrel = 115 litres
April 20, the day the leak started
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