Deepwater oil spill effect – Obama loses face, BP loses credibility

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"There wasn't sufficient urgency in terms of the pace of how those changes needed to take place. Obviously they weren't happening fast enough. If they were happening fast enough, this might have been caught," the US president, who had earlier slammed the cozy and corrupt relationship between regulators and industry, said.

However, the US president made a steely resolve, assuring the people that the US government will do everything to "shut this down."

"It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It doesn't mean it’s going to happen right away or the way I'd like it to happen. It doesn't mean that we’re not going to make mistakes. But there shouldn't be any confusion here. The federal government is fully engaged, and I'm fully engaged," Obama said.

Obama's speech came amid scathing criticism from political opponents and growing public frustrations even as some equated Obama's problems in the gulf with President George W. Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a deadly storm proved a political disaster for President George W. Bush, who was accused of complacency in handling it.

However, Obama was quick to dismiss that comparison, saying the government has made "the largest effort of its kind in US history" and was in charge of BP's response.

"Those who think we were either slow in our response or lacked urgency don't know the facts. This has been our highest priority since this crisis occurred," the US president said, hinting that he is determined not to allow the Gulf spill from becoming his own "Katrina" ahead of the November congressional elections.

Rhetoric notwithstanding, results of popularity polls released last week showed a dip in Obama's public support. For instance, while a Gallup poll, released Thursday, found that 53 percent see Obama's response to the spill as "poor" or "very poor," a CNN poll last Monday showed dissatisfaction with Obama's oil-spill response as well - with 51 percent disapproving of the way the US president has handled the oil spill.

 BP loses credibility

Meanwhile, people are increasingly beginning to resign themselves to the bleak fact that BP, which acknowledged that leak was an "environmental catastrophe," is fighting a losing battle.

Last week, BP engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube after it sucked up a disappointing 900,000 gallons of oil from the gusher and last Saturday, BP was forced to halt its "top kill" operation, which involves plugging up the well by pumping thick "drilling mud" and cement into the runway well, by a team of scientists and Energy Secretary Steven Chu after drilling experts sounded alarm that high-pressure injections could cause a catastrophic collapse of well pipes and leave an open crater that would be impossible to cap.

BP also tried to get around that problem with a series of "junk shots," in which materials like shredded rubber tires, pieces of rope and golf balls were fired in to clog holes in the valve, but the efforts were in vain.

And, on Sunday, Obama administration and BP officials were forced to come out with a statement that they plan to sever a leaking rusher pipe as part of an effort to cap the gushing well bore in the Gulf of Mexico but the risky maneuver could increase flow by as much as 20 percent, and the oil giant has no remedy to permanently plug the well until August.

"Once the cap is on, the question is how snug is that fit?" said Carol Browner, special assistant to the president for energy and climate change. "If it's a snug fit, then there could be very, very little oil. If they're not able to get as snug a fit, then there could be more."

Earlier this month, BP began drilling relief wells, which are expected to intersect the damaged one, and BP will seal it near the reservoir far below the seafloor. The first has reached 7,000 feet below the seafloor, and the second has reached 3,500 feet below the floor. However, progress gets slower the deeper the wells go and with the arrival of hurricane season Tuesday, the drilling could be slowed if the rigs need to be evacuated during storms.

BP Managing Director Robert Dudley said that on Monday or Tuesday, using remote-controlled robots at the mile-deep well, BP plans to shear away most of the damaged pipe that once rose from the well to the Deepwater Horizon. Then it will make a more precise cut with a diamond-toothed band saw and put in place a containment device that would try to siphon off most of the leaking oil and gas up to a tanker ship on the surface.

However, many people are sceptical of BP's plans and the effectiveness of the recovery operations, which have cost BP $940 million till date. "I don't think that people should really believe what BP is saying in terms of the likelihood of anything that they're doing is going to turn out as they're predicting," Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who sits on a congressional committee investigating the disaster, said.

Markey, who has slammed BP from the beginning for not giving a true picture of the extent of the oil gushing out from the damaged well, said the company's "focus was not completely on the livability of the Gulf" and "they had a stake in low-balling the number right from the beginning."

"They were either lying or they were incompetent," Markey said. "They do not know for sure what the result is going to be of anything which they are doing."

Browner also said BP had a "vested financial interest" in downplaying the size of the leak.

"This is without doubt the worst environmental disaster in our history. They (BP) will pay a penalty based on the number of barrels (leaking out) per day," Browner said. "That's why we brought in an independent team. We did not include BP in the estimates that were made available."

President Obama also promised to hold BP responsible for "every dime" of damage to the region.

Dudley's comments came even BP's cleanup efforts tripled in oiled areas that encompass 107 miles of shoreline and 30 acres of tidal marsh and reports grew that an estimated 18 to 40 million gallons of oil have been unleashed since BP's Deepwater Horizon platform exploded and sank last month, killing 11, and vast plumes of oil from the spill, including an area about 50 miles from the spill site and as deep as 400 feet, are spreading underwater.

Shares of BP, which have slipped nearly 25 percent ever since the April 20 explosion, closed 4.99 percent down on Friday at 494.80 pence on the London Stock Exchange.