Washington, April 27: An oil spill from a leaking underwater well grew to cover 1900 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday as the U.S Coast Guard scramble to keep the slick from reaching the fragile Gulf Coast shoreline.
The well, 5000 feet under the ocean surface off Louisiana’s coast is leaking about 1000 barrels of the oil a day. The spill, which the US Coast Guard has called “very serious”, has put the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Florida on alert for the potential oil contamination.
Swiss-based trans-ocean Ltd’s Deepwater Horizon sank on 22nd April, two days after it exploded and caught fire while finishing a well for BP Plc about 40 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
—Agencies