BP promises swifter attack against oil spill
6/15/2010

PENSACOLA -- Tar balls stained the Panhandle's white-sand beaches Monday, as oil giant BP unveiled an accelerated cleanup schedule and President Barack Obama began his latest tour of damage to the Gulf of Mexico -- this time with plans to make a stop in Florida.

The president's two-day stay in the Gulf also includes visits to Mississippi and Alabama -- followed by an Oval Office speech to the nation Tuesday evening and a Wednesday face-to-face meeting with BP higher-ups.

``We're going to continue to hold BP and any other responsible parties accountable for the disaster that they created,'' Obama said at a disaster-response staging area in Theodore, Ala.

BP on Monday responded to Coast Guard demands for a more-aggressive cleanup strategy by speeding up its containment efforts -- with the company now pledging to capture more than 50,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of June, two weeks earlier than initially scheduled.

By the end of this week, BP should be capturing about 28,000 barrels a day, according to U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen.

The exact amount of oil spewing into the Gulf daily -- and how much has leaked in the nearly two months since the spill began -- remains a mystery.

``That's the $100,000 question,'' Allen said. ``And we're never going to know exactly what it is until we have a tight seal on that and we can actually measure production.''

BP is not expected to fully seal the leak until August.

The government's latest estimates of the spill have ranged from 20,000 to 40,000 barrels of crude gushing daily into the Gulf.

Over the weekend, BP began installing underwater sensors that may be able to more accurately measure the spill's magnitude, but a company spokesman said it was unclear when those sensors would be fully in place and operational.

The massive oil slick's future path is difficult to predict, as its movement is guided by ever-shifting ocean currents, but representatives in Miami's Unified Command Center -- comprised of BP and various federal agencies -- said that the odds of oil avoiding the Florida Keys and South Florida are ``favorable.''

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projections show the Gulf's loop current detaching from the Franklin eddy, which has been circulating some of the Deepwater Horizon rig's oil, by June 20. Had this eddy stayed attached to the loop current, it might have carried oil toward the Keys.

Instead, oil will most likely remain in the eddy and be carried around in a circular motion that takes two weeks to complete. Due to the nature of Gulf currents, the eddy will probably drift westward, moving farther away from the loop current.

As South Florida waits and worries, the Panhandle continues to stew in anger and frustration over the spill, which has already sullied its beaches. In Pensacola, the president's arrival prompted criticism from some affected residents that this latest trip amounted to ``too little, too late.''

``He should have gotten on BP's butt two months ago,'' said Pensacola resident Ron Thomas, 75. Thomas called Obama's visit ``just another photo opportunity, but at least it gives people a chance to see the beach before it's destroyed.''

The presidential visit marks Obama's fourth foray into the Gulf since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 people and triggered the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Obama's three previous trips were to Louisiana, which suffered the early brunt of the oil damage.

The White House is pushing BP to set up a separate escrow account, administered by an independent third party, to handle damage claims -- something federal officials hope will speed up the arrival of checks to affected residents and businesses, and also make the process more transparent.

Reports came in early Monday morning of tar balls washing ashore on Pensacola Beach as well as on nearby Perdido Key. It was described by authorities as ``slight tar ball coverage.''

At the beach, county officials were staging dump trucks and other equipment from the county road department ``in preparation for impact,'' said Brandi Thompson, a county spokeswoman.

A sheen of oil also burst through booms at Pensacola Pass and skimmers were working to tackle the oil inside Pensacola Bay. Officials are hoping to send up helicopters to scout the oil and steer the skimmers, since the patches are easier to spot from the air. Just past the Florida state line, in Orange Beach, Ala., flights are going up three times a day to monitor the oil offshore.

The heaviest impact on the beach there was Friday night when tar balls, mousse and sheen came onto its eight miles of beach, said Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon.

Crews have worked cleaning the beach, Kennon said, and they're currently monitoring a plume about 10 miles from shore.

``We want to keep it off the beach and skim it before it gets here,'' he said. ``BP isn't giving us what we need. We're screaming for more. They keep saying they have them coming. We shouldn't have oil on the beach.''

Source: The Miami Herald