Black tide Spotlight on disaster on lesechos

In the United States, the spill extends and anger mounts. Despite the failure, this weekend, the last attempt of clogging of BP, the White House still seems to rely entirely on strategy and technological capabilities in the oil group to try to stem the leak which now threatens to be 4 times greater than that of the "Exxon Valdez" in 1989. "The oil industry has the best technology in the world to respond to this crisis," thus considered yesterday the head of the US joint staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.

However some elected officials doubt the capacity of response of BP and the reliability of its forecasts. "I have no confidence whatsoever in BP." "I do not think that we should believe what said BP in terms of probability", has launched the Democrat Representative Edward Markey, to preside over a commission of inquiry into the spill.

The criticism raining down on the lack of transparency in BP since the "New York Times" revealed an internal memo referring to serious problems regarding the installation of the lines and the control of the well several weeks before the explosion of the platform, on 20 April.

In addition, according to its own submissions to the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the Federal agency responsible for oversight of drilling offshore, the oil group have provided in its application for permit to drill that he was able to with a black tide 10 times greater than that of today. On top of all, the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward, was yesterday challenged the existence of underwater oil which several teams of scientists Americans consider indisputable.

For the American press, the question is whether the White House will invest more in control of the operations. Despite the attempt of recovery in the hands of the crisis by Barack Obama at his press conference of May 27, the risk grows that the spill is revealed the "Katrina of Obama", in reference to the disastrous management of the hurricane of 2005, by George w. Bush. Or even "worse", according to some editors.

A "plan B" risky

In the immediate future, BP intends to implement in the coming days a new "plan B". A "risky" operation acknowledged the Adviser to the energy of Barack Obama, Carol Browner, on NBC. In fact, the new attempt, aimed at cutting damaged pipelines and cover with a Bell of containment, may result in an increase of 20 of the leak of crude during the three to seven days prior to the establishment of the dome. BP will use undersea robots to cut the rising conduct, under the control of Admiral Thad Allen, responsible for the supervision of cleaning operations, the objective being to then connect the device to a ship to recover crude.

The new attempt is largely similar to the removal of a Bell of containment had failed three weeks ago. But BP says the problem of crystals of ice that had formed on the giant dome preventing any pumping.

In parallel, to really stop the leak, the Group began to dig two wells of relief, but the operation will not be finished before August. "We have failed to overcome the beast", has recognized this weekend, the CEO of BP, Robert Dudley.

Black tide: Spotlight on disaster on lesechos.fr/dossierlesechos.fr/dossier