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BP says progress in effort to contain oil spill
Energy giant BP was making some progress on Monday with its efforts to contain the oil gushing forth from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, But the stakes are high amid fears of an ecological and economic calamity along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Investors have already knocked around $30 billion off BP’s value and its share price will be closely watched this week. After several tough weeks, this is shaping up to be another rough one for the company. A U.S. Labor Department official told the Financial Times that BP has a “systematic safety problem” at its refineries. “BP executives, they talk a good line. They say they want to improve safety,” Jordan Barab, a senior official at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, told the paper.
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BP tries again to contain oil spill
Energy giant BP made a new attempt to siphon gushing oil from an offshore well as political pressure and public outrage increased over the company’s slow progress at stopping environmental disaster. London-based BP Plc admitted on Saturday that its latest attempt to contain the spill had failed but a top executive expressed optimism that the tricky undersea effort to redirect the flow of oil would be operational overnight. The latest fix involves guiding undersea robots to insert a small tube into a 21-inch (53-cm) pipe, known as a riser, to funnel the oil to a ship at the surface.
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Oil leak closes in on marsh, BP keeps trying
Energy giant BP scrambled on Saturday to make good on its latest attempt to contain oil from a ruptured wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico as the government approved the use of dispersants underwater, at the source of the seabed gusher. With crude oil pouring unchecked from a blown-out well a mile deep on the floor of the Gulf, London-based BP was struggling to guide robots to insert a narrow tube wrapped in a rubber flange into the 21-inch pipe spewing the oil — and to funnel that oil to a drill ship at the surface. “That work is currently underway and we hope to begin operations overnight,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told reporters on Friday afternoon.
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Dolphin, turtle deaths eyed for links to oil spill
Scientists are examining the deaths of at least six dolphins and over 100 sea turtles along the U.S. Gulf Coast in recent weeks to see if they are victims of the giant oil spill in the region, wildlife officials said on Thursday. All of the deaths are being looked at as possible casualties of the oil gushing unchecked since April 20 from a ruptured wellhead on the floor of the Gulf off Louisiana because of their proximity in time and space to the spill. But none of the dolphins or turtles examined showed any obvious visible signs of oil contamination.
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Brazil death toll from floods, mudslides rises to 64
Rescue crews on Saturday intensified the search for victims at a plush Brazilian beach resort ravaged by mudslides and flooding that have killed at least 64 people in three states. Firefighters waded through mountains of mud and sifted through the remains of a lodge and homes that were destroyed in the early hours of Friday when a hillside collapsed in the luxury beach resort of Angra dos Reis, removing 35 bodies, authorities said.