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Discussion
President Obama talks about the spill at the White House, his first public comments on the issue. He pledges "every single available resource", including the US military, to contain the spreading spill, and also says BP is responsible for the cleanup. -
Banning
Obama says no drilling will be allowed in new areas until the cause of the Deepwater Horizon accident is established.US bans new drilling in Gulf of Mexico. The US justice department announces that a team of lawyers is monitoring the spill. Safety inspections of all 30 deepwater drilling rigs and 47 deepwater production platforms are ordered.
BP chairman Tony Hayward says the company will take full responsibility for the spill, paying for all legitimate claims and the cost for the cleanup. -
Starting the cleanup
BP successfully attaches a valve to the end of the broken drilling pipe at the Macondo well in a bid to end the flow of oil into the US Gulf. BP says one of the three leaks has been shut off by capping a valve, but that would not reduce the amount of oil gushing out. Officials conduct controlled burns to remove oil from the open water. -
Reports
The New York Times reports that "a half-dozen current and former agency scientists" for the Minerals Management Service (MMS) claim they were "regularly pressured by agency officials to change the findings of their internal studies if they predicted that an accident was likely to occur or if wildlife might be harmed". The article states that the MMS has allowed hundreds of drilling projects without obtaining legally required permits. -
Failure
BP pumps thousands of barrels of mud into the well in an attempt to plug the leak. The process, known as top kill, fails to overcome the flow of oil.
A White House leak shows Obama ended a briefing with the terse command: "Plug the damn hole." -
Comparing
Obama compares the BP oil spill to 9/11. -
Heck
There are more than 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico from a host of companies including BP, according to an investigation by Associated Press, which describes the area as 'an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades'. Some of them date back to the 1940s. State officials estimate that tens of thousands of them are badly sealed. -
Success
BP successfully installs a new, more tightly fitting containment cap on the ruptured wellhead. The next step is to test the internal pressure in the well to establish whether the flow has been stopped. -
We goofed
The world's smallest seahorse faces extinction following the BP oil spill. The Zoological Society of London's seahorse team warns that the destruction of so much of the dwarf seahorses' habitat could lead to a dangerous drop in population levels. -
End the Collonies
The Obama administration's six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling operations ends. Environmental groups express concern over the decision, while supporters of offshore drilling dismiss the announcement, arguing that the moratorium is effectively still in place due to continuing uncertainty over new drilling regulations.