BP Tries to Shift Blame for Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

(May 3) -- Florida's governor extended a state of emergency order as far south as Sarasota today and BP's chief executive sought to divert blame for the giant Gulf of Mexico oil spill, even as the company accepted responsibility for the costs of cleaning up the giant slick.

"It wasn't our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do," BP CEO Tony Hayward said on NBC's "Today" show.

The well continued spilling oil at an an unknown rate -- the Coast Guard said about 210,000 gallons per day -- and BP said it was a week away from an experimental attempt at collecting the spewing oil at the bottom of the gulf, 5,000 feet below the water's surface.


Turtles and other sea animals washed up dead along the Gulf Coast as crews tried to use booms to contain the slick that threatens the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Nearly 7,000 square miles of federal fishing areas were closed, shutting down a key Gulf Coast industry just when the spring season should have begun.

The pipe has been leaking oil since a drilling platform blew up April 20 and sank into the gulf two days later. Eleven workers are missing and presumed to have died in the explosion.

Since the rig sank, the company has been using robotic submarines to try to stop the oil flow, with no success. It is also building massive containers that are to be lowered over the leak, but that system won't be ready until the weekend, BP has said.

While accepting the costs of the disaster, Hayward said the blame for the spill lies with Swiss company Transocean Ltd., which owns the giant Deepwater Horizon platform. BP had leased the platform.


"The drilling rig was a Transocean drilling rig. It was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people, their processors," Hayward told NBC.

Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell declined to directly address Hayward's comments but said the company is fully cooperating in the investigation of the spill's cause. "We will await all the facts before drawing conclusions, and we will not speculate," Cantwell told AOL News.

An investigative board plans to hold public hearings on the accident beginning later this month. The cause of the April explosion at the Deepwater Horizon platform remains unknown.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist added 13 counties to the emergency order he issued last week for six counties, signaling a growing concern that the state's west coast beaches could be hit by the slick.

President Barack Obama visited coastal Louisiana on Sunday, trying to stem complaints that his administration was responding too slowly to the catastrophe.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told ABC's "Good Morning America" that BP is the party responsible for the spill. "They are going to end up paying for the federal government's costs, for the states and most importantly for the individuals and the communities that are going to be most directly impacted," Napolitano said.

She declined to estimate the ultimate cost of the spill, saying, "The cash register is still going."

Windy weather and strong currents hampered oil cleanup on the water's surface over the weekend, but Hayward said a new dispersal method -- the pumping of chemical dispersants at the source of the leak deep under the surface -- looks successful. Aerial spraying of the chemicals onto the water's surface also continues, and Doug Suttles, a BP executive, said forecasts predicted a calmer weather that should allow skimming and burning of the oil to be resumed this week.

Also today, Suttles was forced to back off a report from his company that indicated progress with attempts to block the oil being spilled.

Jeff Childs, a deputy incident commander for BP, said before noon that the company had successfully shut a set of hydraulic shears, blocking the oil flow. A newspaper and television station from Mobile, Ala., reported the comments from Childs that the company had "significantly cut the flow'" of oil leaking into the gulf.

But hours later, Suttles said that was inaccurate.

BP plans to lower massive metal containers to capture the gushing oil at the seabed and funnel it to a barge at the surface. That operation will not start until next weekend, Hayward said. The company also has started drilling the first of two new wells that would intersect with the leaking well, which would then be sealed with concrete. That effort will probably take three months, BP officials said.

According to Hayward, 700 fishing vessels are being used to fight the spill, and 3,000 people have signed up for those efforts.

BP came under criticism by Alabama Attorney General Troy King for offering fishermen $5,000 payments in exchange for their agreement not to sue, the Mobile Press-Register reported. Hayward said BP has halted those efforts, telling NPR's "Morning Edition" it was "an early misstep."

"We will absolutely be paying for the cleanup operation. There's no doubt about that," Hayward told NPR. "Where legitimate claims are made, we will be good for them."

The contracts required the fishermen to waive their right to sue BP and required confidentiality, sparking protests in Louisiana and elsewhere. Darren Beaudo, a spokesman for BP, said that the waiver requirement had been stripped out and that ones already signed would not be enforced.