A blazing oil rig sank on Thursday into the Gulf of Mexico, sparking fears of an environmental disaster two days after a massive blast that left 11 workers missing.
US maritime authorities said crude oil was pouring into the sea at the site where the hulking Deepwater Horizon rig once stood, although they were unable to determine at what rate.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama said the federal response to the disaster “was being treated as the No. 1 priority,” the White House said in a statement.
PHOTO: EPA
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Obama “made sure that the entire federal government was offering all assistance needed in the rescue effort as well as in mitigating and responding to the environmental impact,” the statement read.
Officials said that before the explosion, there were 2.6 million liters of diesel fuel on board the semi-submersible platform and it had been drilling 8,000 barrels of oil a day.
“This is considered a major oil spill,” said Mike O’Berry, a US Coast Guard senior chief petty officer.
The Coast Guard said a 1.6km by 8km slick had settled on the surface 70km offshore as a massive clean-up operation got underway to prevent the oil from hitting land in the Gulf states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
Coast Guard vessels continued their search late on Thursday for the 11 missing workers, while British oil giant BP, which leased the platform, dispatched a fleet of boats to try to keep environmental damage in check.
POTENTIAL
Officials said the current spill had the potential to be the worst seen in the US since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill, considered one of the worst man-made environmental disasters.
That spill, vastly bigger than the current one in the US Gulf, poured nearly 41.6 million liters of crude into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, devastating 1,300km of its once pristine shores.
O’Berry said US authorities were deploying several oil-skimming vessels to try to limit the pollution.
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