Fighting back

London, June 8: President Obama has launched his strongest personal attack yet on BP boss Tony Hayward, whose ill-advised comments on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have made him a hate figure in the US.

In a television interview, Obama also defended his own handling of the crisis, saying that he had been talking closely with experts and officials “so I know whose ass to kick”.

The President, who has been widely criticised for not engaging passionately enough on the disaster, said he had talked to a variety of experts as well as fishermen and Gulf Coast locals during this three trips to the area, most recently last Friday. “I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answer, so I know whose ass to kick,” Obama told NBC News’s Today programme.

Obama said that he believes the British energy giant should pay compensation to those affected by the crisis that began on April 20 with the explosion on a BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers.

“We also have to make sure that every single person that has been affected by this is properly compensated and made whole,” Obama said.

He was asked about comments by Hayward, BP’s British CEO, that “I want my life back”, that the Gulf was “a big ocean” and that “the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest”.

“He wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements,” Obama replied.

BP is under political pressure to suspend dividend payments — which total $10.5 billion a year — after two US senators called on the company not to pay out to shareholders until the full costs for cleaning up the massive spill are known.

On his third trip to the Louisiana Gulf Coast since the oil spill began, Obama told reporters last week that BP should not be “nickel and diming” residents along the oil-stained Gulf coast over damage claims while spending billions in shareholder dividends.

Obama, who has repeatedly vowed to hold the company accountable for the disaster and make sure that it foots the bill, has called on BP to pay damage claims expeditiously.

Earlier, Obama sought to reassure America that the Gulf Coast would “bounce back” from the worst oil spill in US history, but not without time, effort and reimbursement from BP.

Surrounded by cabinet members, Obama said that not only is he confident the crisis will pass but also that the affected area “comes back even stronger than ever”.

US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the government’s efforts to deal with the oil spill, said yesterday that a cap on the damaged well is now keeping up to 1.75 million litres of oil a day from leaking into the Gulf. “This will be contained,” Obama asserted.

“It may take some time, and it’s going to take a whole lot of effort. There is going to be damage done to the Gulf Coast, and there is going to be economic damages that we’ve got to make sure BP is responsible for and compensates people for.”

But, he added, “even if we are successful in containing some or much of the oil; the problem wouldn’t be solved until relief wells reach the area of the damaged well in several months. What is clear is that the economic impact of this disaster is going to be substantial and it is going to be ongoing”.