Tag: Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Obama vows help as BP sees oil spill progress

by Allen Johnson, AFP

2 hrs 28 mins ago

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AFP) – US President Barack Obama promised on Saturday to use “every resource” to help those affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, as Americans awaited news of BP’s latest containment effort.

In his weekly radio address, broadcast from Grand Isle, Louisiana, a community bearing the brunt of the spill, Obama pledged ongoing attention to the disaster.

“So we will continue to leverage every resource at our disposal to protect coastlines, to clean up the oil, to hold BP and other companies accountable for damages,” he said.

Weekend News Digest

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 BP rushes new plan to stem Gulf oil leak

by Allen Johnson, AFP

Sun May 30, 12:48 pm ET

ROBERT, Louisiana (AFP) – BP engineers scrambled Sunday to implement another high-risk plan to stem the devastating Gulf oil spill now being described as likely the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Hours after the British oil giant acknowledged failure in its “top kill” attempt to plug the underwater well, company officials said it could take a week to implement the next bid — placing a cap over the leak.

“Right now we are going to a containment operation,” BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told CNN’s “State of the Union” program of the latest attempt to deal with the ruptured well nearly a mile (1,600 meters) under water.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Bid to plug oil leak continues amid uncertainty

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

2 hrs 58 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Engineers pushed forward with efforts to plug a disastrous Gulf of Mexico leak Saturday as locals and officials crossed their fingers that the untested “top kill” process would work.

A day after President Barack Obama visited the region for the second time since the oil spill began in April, energy giant BP could offer little but assurances that the bid was ongoing, but that it was too early to judge its success.

“It’s not a nice little black and white operation and they’ve got to take it as it comes,” said Robert Wine, a spokesman for the British firm.

Weekend News Digest

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Anger mounts as oil blackens Louisiana marshes, beaches

by Stephane Jourdain, AFP

41 mins ago

VENICE, Louisiana (AFP) – Anger mounted Sunday as heavy oil blackened Louisiana’s marshes and beaches and efforts to cap the oil which has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for more than a month ran into more delays.

Initially scheduled to begin on Sunday, BP’s latest attempt to plug a leak in a ruptured pipe 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface, the “top kill”, is not expected to get under way until Tuesday at the earliest.

As crews used robotic submarines to position equipment to inject heavy drilling fluids into the well and then seal it with cement, the amount of oil being suctioned up by a mile-long insertion tube slowed to 1,360 barrels a day from the previous average of about 2,100.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Obama forms spill commission as oil mess spreads

by Stephane Jourdain, AFP

2 hrs 22 mins ago

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AFP) – President Barack Obama unveiled a commission Saturday to probe the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the growing environmental catastrophe hit Louisiana’s fragile wetlands.

With the federal government facing accusations of lax supervision of the lucrative offshore oil drilling industry, Obama vowed to hold Washington accountable and warned that the future of the industry hinges on assurances such a disaster would not happen again.

He also sharpened his tone against the three firms involved in the spill — BP, Transocean and Halliburton.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Tube has limited success in containing US oil leak

by Clement Sabourin, AFP

1 hr 9 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – BP succeeded Sunday in capturing some oil and gas by inserting a mile-long tube into the main Gulf of Mexico leak, but did not say what percentage of the gusher was being contained.

A statement on the latest efforts to control the massive slick off Louisiana and stave off an environmental disaster said a tube had been inserted into the leaking pipe overnight and captured “some amounts of oil and gas.”

The process, which saw oil sucked up as if through a straw to a giant drill ship on the surface, comes after US President Barack Obama blasted the companies involved for seeking to shift blame and shirk responsibility.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US asks BP to clarify cleanup intentions as Gulf spill gushes on

by Clement Sabourin, AFP

54 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Crews worked to place a siphon tube into a ruptured pipe spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico Saturday as globs of oil washed ashore in new spots and US officials told BP to clarify what cleanup costs it will pay.

The latest effort by British Petroleum to contain the thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf involves connecting an “insertion tube” to the leak site so oil can be siphoned to a container vessel at the surface.

The process was supposed to be completed overnight, but aligning the pieces under water proved more complex than expected, and a frame connected to the pipe had to be brought back up to the surface to be adjusted, BP said.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 New scale of disaster looms in Gulf of Mexico

by Guillaume Decamme, AFP

1 hr 34 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Concern grew Sunday that the US Gulf coast is facing a whole new level of environmental disaster after the best short-term fix for a massive oil spill ran into serious trouble.

BP’s giant containment box lay idle on the seabed as engineers furiously tried to figure out how to stop it clogging with ice crystals, preparing for attempts to resuscitate their vital mission in the next day or so.

The British energy giant, which owns the lion’s share of the leaking oil and has accepted responsibility for the clean-up, has tried to banish the notion that the so-called “dome” is a “silver bullet” to end the crisis.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 BP dealt setback in oil containment bid

AFP

23 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – BP was dealt a setback Saturday to capping a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after a containment dome encountered flammable hydrate formations as it was lowered onto the leak site.

The gas hydrates, similar to ice crystals, formed on the inside of the 100-ton (90-tonne) chamber as it neared the seabed nearly a mile (1,500 meters below the surface, making it too buoyant and clogging it up, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters.

Workers have moved the concrete and steel box some 650 feet (200 meters) to the side on the seabed while they evaluate their options.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Oil slick closes on U.S. coast, BP pressed to act

By Matthew Bigg, Reuters

1 hr 20 mins ago

VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – A huge wind-driven oil slick bore down on the U.S. Gulf coast on Sunday, threatening an environmental catastrophe, and the Obama administration heaped pressure on BP Plc to halt the uncontrolled spill from its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well.

Since the explosion and sinking last week of the Deepwater Horizon rig, a disaster scenario has emerged with hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil spewing unchecked into the Gulf and moving inexorably northward to the coast.

The spreading black tide threatens wildlife, beaches and one of the world’s most fertile fishing grounds in an area stretching across four states, from Louisiana to Florida.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Disaster looms as oil slick reaches US coast

by Erica Berenstein, AFP

Sat May 1, 8:56 am ET

VENICE, Louisiana (AFP) – Oil from a giant Gulf of Mexico slick washed onto Louisiana shores Saturday, threatening an environmental calamity, as two more neighboring states declared a state of emergency.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, planned to visit the spill area over the weekend to assess the situation first hand, a White House official said.

With up to 200,000 gallons of oil a day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured well, the accident stemming from a sunken offshore rig may soon rival the Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst oil spill in US history.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Thai PM vows to retake Bangkok protest site

by Thanaporn Promyamyai, AFP

45 mins ago

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand’s embattled prime minister vowed to clear Bangkok’s commercial heart of anti-government Red Shirt protesters as he appeared on television Sunday in a show of unity with his army chief.

But Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva did not say when security forces would retake the Red Shirts’ vast protest site, occupied for three weeks and fortified with barricades made from truck tyres and sharpened bamboo poles.

Adding to the tension, the rival Yellow Shirt group, who are backed by the country’s elite, plan to meet on Monday upon the expiry of a deadline they set a week ago for the government to deal with the Reds.

Load more