BP's Suttles: Clean-up To Continue As Long As Needed

1st Aug 2010 22:09

SOUTH PASS, Louisiana (Dow Jones)--The amount of oil found on Louisiana's shore and waters has decreased dramatically since BP PLC (BP) shut in a leaking Gulf of Mexico well, Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Sunday. Months of clean-up efforts have also improved the situation of some places that were hit early on by the oil tide, Suttles said during a tour of a beach facing the Gulf of Mexico. "This is what it's supposed to look like," Suttles said, pointing to a clean beach that once saw reddish-brown blobs of crude. "Every day it's starting to look better than the day before." Suttles' comments highlight the recent optimism shown by the U.K.-based company, which plans to permanently kill the spill by flooding the damaged deepwater well with drilling mud early next week. Suttles said that the attempt would likely take place on Tuesday, although U.S. government officials said it could occur Monday night. BP has spent more than $4 billion trying to contain and clean the oil spill, which began in late April when a drilling rig leased by the company blew up and sank, killing 11. The South Pass area, about 40 miles from the Deepwater Horizon site, was one of the first areas on the Louisiana shore to be reached by oil sheen in late April. A tour of the area on Sunday showed little oil in the water, but previous tides that landed on the surrounding marshes were still visible, the thick brown goop engulfing the plants' roots. "We're picking up a lot of oil," said Randy Murray, who operated a device to suck oil out of the fragile marshes. On Sunday his team picked up 100 gallons, he said. "We're not finding much oil in the water at all," Suttles told reporters. When asked about the presence of oil under water, he said BP wasn't finding much either. The company plans to scale back its response effort from areas where there's little impact, but BP will be there "as long as it takes," as tar balls are still showing up in some places and "we need to pick them up." Louisiana elected officials, however, have criticized the plans to scale back the response, saying the well's not definitively plugged yet and oil is still coming ashore. -By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires, [email protected]; 281-536-3064 (END) Dow Jones Newswires August 01, 2010 17:09 ET (21:09 GMT)