Gulf oil spill: day 100

The US government kept up pressure on BP today; 100 days after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began, despite the ouster of the energy giant's chief executive, who has been replaced with an American.

The White House showed little sympathy for Tony Hayward, whose departure was announced as BP revealed a record loss. US investigators have meanwhile started a criminal probe into whether close ties between BP and federal regulators contributed to April 20 disaster, the Washington Post reported.

But while a cap on the damaged well appears to be holding and collection efforts have drastically reduced the amount of oil visible in the ocean, officials say the scope of the disaster is still unknown.

"When you put somewhere between three million and 5.2 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico I don't think anybody can understate the impact and the gravity of that situation," Thad Allen, the retired admiral in charge of the government spill response, said yesterday.

US experts say a lot of the oil on the surface has been naturally broken down. The political storm remains for BP, which yesterday announced that it would set aside more than 32 billion dollars to pay the costs of the disaster.

Hayward's parting comments that he had been "demonized and vilified" immediately threatened BP's efforts to rebuild its image under new American chief executive Bob Dudley.

"I don't think that a lot of people in any country are feeling overly sorry for the former CEO of BP," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Hayward was also reported to have said "life isn't fair," prompting Gibbs to respond: "What's not fair is what has happened on the Gulf, what is not fair is that the actions of some have caused the greatest environmental disaster that our country has ever seen."

(Via The Economic Times)