US urges more study of sea damage after BP spill

US officials on Sunday urged further study of the damage to sea life wreaked by BP’s broken well in the Gulf of Mexico, and warned that the energy giant would face a “large financial penalty”.

White House energy chief Carol Browner declined to say if criminal charges could be brought, as the US Justice Department continues to investigate the causes of the spill which unleashed the worst maritime oil disaster in history.

But following a week of rosy government reports on vanishing oil in the high seas, the US pointman on the disaster said a clear picture of the pollution and its effect on the environment was only beginning to come into view.

“I think what we need to understand is there’s a lot of oil that’s been taken care of. There’s a lot of oil that’s still out there,” said Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen on CNN.

“You need to keep a steady hand at the tiller here, keep this clean-up going,” said Mr Allen.

“What was permanently done to the marshes and the beaches, what was permanently done to the juvenile fish and seafood stocks – how does that relate to future losses?

“We have to quantify that somehow. That takes a lot of study,” Allen said. “And that’s the process that we’ve been moving into now.”

An estimated 4.9 million barrels, more than 205 million gallons, spewed from BP’s ruptured well in the 87 days from the beginning of the disaster until the leak was finally capped on July 15, the US government has said.

About 800,000 barrels were captured by containment operations that syphoned oil from the gushing wellhead to ships on the surface.

The numbers could play a crucial role in determining how much BP is fined under the Clean Water Act, which allows the US government to seek civil penalties for illegal oil discharges.

Ms Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, saidthe British energy giant would be on the hook for massive penalties.

“BP will be held absolutely accountable,” she told NBC’s Meet the Press programme. “There will be a large financial penalty.”

Fines under the law range from $1,100 per barrel spilled to as high as $4,300 per barrel spilled, if negligence is proven, meaning BP could theoretically face fines of up to $17.6 billion for the 4.1 million barrels that poured into the sea.

In response to concerns over the potential for toxins to enter the food supply after BP poured close to 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant into the Gulf to break up the crude slick, it was stated that seafood testing would continue.

“No one is saying don’t worry. What we’re saying is, right now the tests show nothing of concern,” said Ms Browner.

“We’re going to continue to test. We’re not going away. We’re going to continue to work with the Gulf Coast communities, to make sure their economic losses are honoured, to get the fisheries reopened when appropriate,” she said.

BP said this week it has cemented closed the runaway well, which ruptured after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 that killed 11 workers and unleashed the biggest maritime spill on record.

Mr Allen said that work should begin later this week on a relief well that aims to put a permanent end to the problem.