Protests grow as oil spill flows unchecked

OIL from BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, US forecasters said yesterday, as public anger surged over the nation's worst environmental disaster.

• Protesters demonstrate in New Orleans against BP's handling of the oil spill and clean-up in the Gulf. Picture: Chris Bickford/New York Times

US government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out deepwater well feeding the catastrophic spill may not be shut off until August as the company begins preparations on a new but uncertain attempt to contain the leaking crude.

The disaster, in its 42nd day yesterday, is already the largest oil spill in US history and officials are treating it as the country's biggest environmental catastrophe.

Although Louisiana's wetlands and fishing grounds have been the worst hit so far by the spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said moderate southerly and south-westerly winds this week may start moving oil closer to the Mississippi Delta.

"Model results indicate that oil may move north to threaten the barrier islands off Mississippi and Alabama later in the forecast period," NOAA said in its 72-hour prediction on the expected trajectory of the huge oil slick.

The NOAA forecast was a reminder that oil from the unchecked spill, broken up and carried by winds and ocean currents, could threaten a vast area of the US Gulf coast, including the tourism mecca Florida, as well as Cuba and Mexico.

Following the failure this weekend of BP's attempt to plug the leaking mile-deep well, public anger over the spill and how it happened is growing, as tens of thousands of Gulf coast residents face the pollution hitting their livelihoods.

A group calling itself Seize BP, which has staged demonstrations against firm, said yesterday it would organise events in more than 50 US cities from Thursday to Saturday to protest against the damage from the leaking oil.

The group demands that BP's assets be seized immediately and held in trust to pay compensation for the spill triggered by the 20 April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

"The greatest environmental disaster with no end in sight; 11 workers dead. Millions of gallons of oil gushing for months (and possibly years] to come. Jobs vanishing. Creatures dying. A pristine environment destroyed for generations. A mega-corporation that has lied and continues to lie, and a government that refuses to protect the people," Seize BP said.

The public anger and frustration over the spill poses a major challenge for US president Barack Obama, who has been forced to admit publicly that his government and the military did not have the technology to plug the leaking well and must leave this to BP and its private industry partners.

Mr Obama, who made his second visit to the Gulf disaster zone on Friday, is sending three of his top energy and environmental officials back there this week.

He is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the spill, the worst in the country's history.

The crisis could swell into a political liability for the Democratic president as his administration and party, bloodied by bruising healthcare and economic policy debates, head towards key mid-term Congressional elections in November.

Leak relief will not be completed until August

BP EXECUTIVES say that although the company will try several immediate options to try to control the leak, including the planned deployment of a containment cap in the next few days, the ultimate solution may only lie in the drilling of a relief well that is expected to be completed in August.

The drilling of two relief wells that began in May is an expensive but more reliable way to intercept and cap the well.

The Gulf spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989 as the worst US oil spill, with an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (1.9 million to three million litres) leaking per day.

BP is now preparing a containment cap to place on top of a lower marine riser package (LMRP), a piece of equipment that sits atop the failed well blowout preventer on the seabed.

The White House said the company would begin cutting a pipe that rises out of the so-called LMRP this week.

If the containment operation works – and BP expects to know later this week – then at least some of the leaking oil could be piped to the surface.

But even president Barack Obama's administration seems to be looking toward August and the relief well solution.

"There could be oil coming up until August," top White House energy adviser Carol Browner said.

As a health precaution, US authorities have closed all fishing in 25 per cent of Gulf of Mexico US federal waters. The Gulf coast is one of North America's richest ecosystems and a vital breeding ground for a $6.5 billion seafood industry.