Allen says change in BP leadership won't affect spill response

The top federal official involved in addressing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Sunday said reported plans by BP to replace CEO Tony Hayward will not affect spill efforts the Obama administration is coordinating with the company.
 
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said he has no confirmation regarding reports that Hayward has agreed to step down and will be replaced by Robert Dudley, BP’s senior-most U.S. executive in charge of the company’s operations in the gulf.
 
“I have no knowledge of the inner working of BP as a corporation,” Allen told reporters in a conference call. He said his job is to focus on the unified federal-private effort to contain and clean up the spill and to make sure BP is a responsible party.
 
Allen “will continue to do that regardless of who is in charge” at BP, he said.

Ships particularly critical to addressing the spill are already in the area, Allen said, including a rig that had been drilling a relief well to plug the oil leak and work was already being done to reconnect equipment.

Of the “assets” needed to address the spill, “The critical ones are out there right now,” Allen said.
 

This includes the reinstalling of a riser pipe, or casing, that can be cemented in place to maintain the ruptured well’s stability before drilling resumes. A second vertical riser system will be installed later, but getting a pipe into the relief well “is the most important item we’re working on,” Allen said.
 
Allen emphasized that the well continues to “have integrity.”
 
Other vessels that left the spill site Friday in anticipation of what was Tropical Storm Bonnie will be back to the site as late as Monday, Allen said. Bonnie was downgraded Saturday to a tropical depression while crossing Florida and did not regain strength once it reached the gulf.

This has pushed off a “static kill” operation to plug the well until this upcoming week, Allen said.
 
The storm also displaced some oil that had not yet been skimmed off the surface, which Allen called “problematic.” He said “very intensive surveillance” is being done to locate areas where the oil needs to be skimmed. Oil on the surface appears to have moved from the south to the north and northwest, with the bulk of it moving towards the Mississippi sound area.