A BP cleanup crew picks up oil from a beach this week at Port Fourchon, La.John Moore
BP PLC warned on Tuesday that a planned attempt to plug its gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well may be delayed or abandoned, as the energy giant faced mounting pressure from the Obama administration to contain the catastrophic spill.
Equipped with underwater robots, BP engineers plan on Wednesday to inject heavy drilling fluids in the 1.6-kilometre-deep well, a tricky manoeuvre and its latest bid to halt the flowing oil that has shut down fisheries and soiled coastline.
BP executives have repeatedly stressed the so-called top-kill procedure is a complex process that has never been attempted before at such depths, but the Obama administration, under public pressure, is impatient for swift results.
Before BP engineers try to seal the well, scientists will run diagnostic tests "over the next day or so" to make sure the top-kill procedure does not backfire and make the oil leak worse, BP senior vice-president Kent Wells told reporters.
"What we learn during this diagnostic phase will be crucial to us," said Mr. Wells, whose London-based company has seen around 25 per cent, almost $50-billion (U.S.), wiped off its market value.
Company executives said on Monday the procedure had only a 60-70 per cent chance of working.
"We have to be careful in terms of setting expectations," Mr. Wells said.
After days of lambasting the company's handling of the spill, the Obama administration appeared to step back from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's threat on Sunday to "push out" BP if it did not do enough to plug the leak.
The U.S. government needs BP's deepwater technology to try to shut off the oil well, said Carol Browner, President Barack Obama's adviser on energy and climate change.
"Obviously, we need the BP technology, but we are not relying on them ... we have our own minds in there," she told CNN, referring to the team of government scientists working with BP to battle the disaster.
Mr. Obama is dealing with a political hot potato over the failure to control the leaking well, with analysts warning that voters may punish his Democrats in November elections widely expected to erode the party's control of the U.S. Congress.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released this week found that 51 per cent of Americans were unhappy with Mr. Obama's handing of the disaster, despite his administration's efforts to show that it is on top of the crisis.
The President will visit Louisiana on Friday to inspect efforts to combat the spill, the White House said, adding that the federal government had deployed more than 1,200 vessels and 22,000 personnel in "one of the largest responses to a catastrophic event in history."
The administration has deflected calls for it to take charge of the operation, saying it is BP's legal responsibility to cap the leak and contain the spreading spill. It stresses that federal authorities have oversight in the operation.
But, state and local officials in affected states like Louisiana have been critical of that approach. Frustrated by BP's failure to seal the well and disperse the oil, they want Mr. Obama to take more direct, forceful action.
"He needs to step up to the plate, put somebody in charge that will protect the wetlands and will keep this oil out," said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, where sheets of heavy oil have already washed into marshlands.
Since the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 workers, the blown-out well beneath the surface has spewed hundreds of thousands of liters of oil into the Gulf in what threatens to become the United States' worst-ever oil spill.
With oil and tar balls from the spill now soiling more than 112 km of Louisiana's 643-km coastline, the U.S. government has declared a "fishery disaster" in the waters off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, making those states eligible for special federal assistance.
Commercial fishing, shrimping and oyster harvests have been shut down for weeks along much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, home to a $6.5-billion seafood industry. Louisiana's industry alone accounts for up to 40 per cent of the U.S. seafood supply and more than 27,000 jobs.
BP has estimated that about 5,000 barrels have been leaking every day, although some scientists have given much higher numbers for the size of the leak - up to 20 times more.
Besides the top-kill option, BP said on Tuesday it was preparing another control method, a lower marine riser package cap containment option, to try to capture and siphon off the oil flowing from the ruptured well.
If the short-term efforts fail, it will take BP several months to drill a relief well to stop the leak.
BP said it had begun sharing its review of the causes of the disaster, which experts say could eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska as the worst U.S. oil spill.
Around 1,000 people arrived in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday to attend a memorial service for the 11 workers killed in the rig explosion.
The memorial, held in the Jackson Convention Complex, began with the Joyful Gospel Choir singing This Little Light of Mine. The stage was adorned with a cross and 11 bronzed hard hats, each representing one of the workers who died.