1,000 staff involved in clean-up operation

STAFF at a BP oil spill response centre in Louisiana are preparing for a long battle as they try to contain the “blob” of oil from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well that is fouling coastal waters and beaches.

The well is leaking crude at a rate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day despite a number of attempts by BP to cap it, polluting wildlife refuges in Louisiana, barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama and some of Florida’s famous beaches.

While officials in a command centre in BP’s US headquarters in Houston work on halting the subsea flow of oil, an even bigger team near Houma, Louisiana, deals with the spill on the water’s surface and the shoreline cleanup operations for Louisiana, the state hardest hit by the spill.