The company that owned the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico has accused BP of withholding critical evidence needed to investigate the cause of the worst offshore spill in US history, it emerged today.

A US state’s attorney general is suing BP and others over the Gulf oil spill because he said the company broke too many promises about accepting responsibility.

Embattled BP chief executive Tony Hayward is negotiating his exit package with an announcement on his future expected in the coming 24 hours, it was reported today.

Robotic submarines working a mile underwater removed a leaking cap from the gushing Gulf oil well, starting a painful trade-off in which more crude will flow into the sea for at least two days until a new seal can be mounted to capture all of it.

The $20 billion it will cost BP to clean-up and compensate for the environmental and economic damage done by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, would have been better spent on building alternative energy projects and funding research into clean technology.

The owners of wrecked rig spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico today criticised the US government’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the area.

BP boss Tony Hayward has received a marathon grilling from US politicians who angrily accused him of evading their questions over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

WITH each new look by scientists, the oil spill just keeps looking worse.

The Gulf of Mexico oil blow-out may have been leaking twice as much as previously thought, scientists fear.

BP says it could be tomorrow or later before it knows whether its latest attempt to clog the source of America’s largest oil spill is working.

BP has launched its latest bid to plug the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico by force-feeding it heavy drilling mud, a manoeuvre never before tried 5,000ft underwater.

Under-pressure oil group BP said the cost of cleaning up the mammoth spill in the Gulf of Mexico had hit around $760m (€610m) so far.

BP said yesterday it has received federal approval to continuously spray chemicals underwater on the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil giant BP today said clean-up costs from the huge spill in the Gulf of Mexico had reached $350m (€270m).

The deadly blow-out of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation.

BP downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore oil rig that exploded and caused the worst spill in decades along America’s Gulf Coast, it emerged today.

Hundreds of hotel owners, fishermen and restaurateurs feared for their livelihoods today as a giant oil slick from a wrecked rig site oozed towards America’s Gulf Coast.

An oil platform which was rocked by a massive explosion two days ago has sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, the US Coast Guard said today.

At least 11 people are missing after an explosion and fire at an oil drilling platform operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.