2010-06-11 14:20

WASHINGTON: US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday slammed British energy giant BP over dividend payment as the US scientists studying the Gulf of Mexico oil spill estimated the BP well could have been spewing some 40,000 barrels of crude a day into the Gulf.

BP slammed

While asked if BP should stop awarding the shareholder dividend and focus on funding the cleanup of the worst oil spill in the US history, Pelosi said: "Yes of course, and that would be their best public relations, instead of taking out all these ads."

"They made $17 billion last year. They should be paying these small businesses first," Pelosi told reporters at the White House after US President Barack Obama met with congressional leaders of both parties.

Pelosi also accused BP of "lack of integrity."

"It is clear that there was a lack of integrity on the part of BP when it came to what it told us about the adequacy of their technology, the sufficiency of blowout prevention and the capacity to clean up," she said.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, owned by Transocean and leased by BP, sank on April 22 some 52 km off Venice, Louisiana, after burning for roughly 36 hours. The untapped wellhead has continued gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP has come under mounting pressure from vocal political opponents in the US not to pay its dividend as scheduled next month until the full costs of the oil spill have been met.

Estimate ups

On the same day, scientists raised their estimate of the amount of crude oil flowing from BP's well in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The lowest estimate that we're seeing that the scientists think is credible is probably about 20,000 barrels, and the highest that we're seeing is probably a little over 40,000," Marcia McNutt, director of the US Geological Survey and chair of a US-government-led flow rate assessment team, told reporters.

The new estimates are higher than the prior "best estimate" of 12,000-19,000 bpd issued on May 27 by the Flow Rate Technical Group.

"Our scientific analysis is still a work in progress. In coming days we'll be refining our estimates further," McNutt said.

The White House has called the spill the biggest environmental disaster that the country has ever faced. Determining how much oil escaped the well is key to establishing liability in the spill.