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Administration gives BP deadline for better spill containment

13 June 2010 01:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Obama administration announced Saturday it has given BP 48 hours to devise a better plan for collecting the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, even as the president attempted to smooth tensions with Britain in a telephone call to Prime Minister David Cameron, APA reports quoting The Washington Post.
Rear Adm. James Watson, the top Coast Guard official in the gulf, told BP officials that he was not satisfied with the size or scope of the company’s current plan for containing the oil spill. He complained in the letter released Saturday that the plan "does not go far enough to mobilize" backup resources "in the event of an equipment failure" or "some other unforeseen problem."
He also expressed alarm that BP’s latest containment proposal was based on low estimates of the amount of oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well off the coast of Louisiana.
The spill, the worst in U.S. history, is presenting political challenges for President Obama as well. After enduring criticism that he was insufficiently firm in his handling of the crisis, the president is now attempting to reassure Britons that his attacks on BP do not extend to the entire nation.
In the 30-minute call, "President Obama said to the Prime Minister that his unequivocal view was that BP was a multinational global company and that frustrations about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity," according to a statement by Cameron’s office.
Obama has summoned BP executives to a White House meeting Wednesday. He also plans to meet with Cameron in Washington on July 20.