Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The US administration has banned oil drilling in new areas of the US coast while the cause of the oil spill off Louisiana is investigated. White House adviser David Axelrod told ABC TV it wanted to know exactly what led to last week's explosion on the BP-operated rig in the Gulf of Mexico. As many as 5,000 barrels of oil a day are thought to be spilling into the water, threatening US coastal areas. Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency on Friday. The order, which covers Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay and Gulf counties, says the oil slick "is generally moving in a northerly direction and threatens Florida's coast". ANALYSIS Paul Adams, BBC News, Washington Even as frantic efforts continue to minimise the consequences of last week's oil rig explosion, the political fallout is becoming clear. A month ago, the administration said it was willing to lift a decades-old ban on offshore drilling. It was seen as a gesture to Republican opponents of President Obama's wider energy policy and his efforts to tackle climate change. But environmentalists were aghast. Now their worst fears are being realised and so the president's senior adviser has said on TV that there will be no new drilling until there has been what he calls "an adequate review" of what's happened in the Gulf of Mexico. Whether his comments herald a complete rethink on offshore drilling, it is still too early to say. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has already declared a state of emergency. The slick from the wreck of the rig has begun to reach the Louisiana shore and on Friday the state's National Guard was mobilised. Heavy seas on Friday were pushing the slick towards the coast and over the booms meant to contain it. The US National Weather Service said strong winds, high tides and waves could push the oil into inlets, ponds and lakes in south-east Louisiana over the weekend. Rescuers poised to treat affected wildlife had their first patient on Friday - a young gannett found offshore covered in thick, black oil. It was taken to a treatment centre at Fort Jackson, south-east of New Orleans. Mr Axelrod announced the ban on drilling in new areas on ABC's Good Morning America programme. He also defended the administration's response to the 20 April explosion that destroyed the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig saying: "We had the coast guard in almost immediately." Last month President Barack Obama eased a moratorium on new offshore drilling. In a statement outside the White House on Friday, President Obama said he believed oil exploration was an important part of the US economy but it had to be done responsibly. "BP is ultimately responsible... for paying the costs of response and clean-up operations but we are fully prepared to meet our responsibilities in all affected communities," he said. He said five staging areas had been set up to protect sensitive shorelines and about 1,900 emergency workers and more than 300 ships and aircraft were on the scene. We're putting everything forth in plans for a worst-case scenario
Cdr Mark McCadden
US Coast Guard
Fears of 'oil Katrina' in Louisiana Oil spill: blame game begins BP in choppy waters after spill Send us your comments Voices: Gulf coast braced In pictures: Spill threatens wildlife He added that he had ordered a "thorough review" of what might be required "to prevent accidents like this from happening again". A BP spokesman in London, Toby Odone, told the BBC his company would face up to its obligations but did not bear sole responsibility for the oil spill. "We... take responsibility for the environmental consequences of that accident and we are obviously fully committed to taking all possible steps to contain the spread of the oil spill," he said. "The rig was owned and was the responsibility of Transocean, which is a drilling company which operates all over the world." He said BP would continue to prospect for new sources of oil. "We are responsible to our shareholders to continue to do the thing which we do best, which is to explore for and to produce oil and gas," he said. The US government has designated the oil spill an "incident of national significance" which allows it to draw on resources from across the country. The wetlands off the Louisiana coast sustain hundreds of wildlife species and a big seafood and fishing industry.
In maps: Oil slick spread The US Coast Guard said it had sent investigators to confirm whether crude oil had begun to wash up on parts of the Louisiana shoreline. Cdr Mark McCadden, of the coast guard, told the BBC: "We're putting everything forth in plans for a worst-case scenario. "Right now the priority is to bring as many resources as are available to attack this spill." Two US Air Force planes have been sent to Mississippi in case they are needed to spray oil-dispersing chemicals over the slick. The Louisiana coastline, with its rich shrimp and oyster beds, is the most threatened by the spill. A group of Louisiana shrimpers has already filed a lawsuit against BP and the owners of the rig, Transocean. Richard Arsenault, a lawyer for the group, told the BBC: "The harm right now to the fishing industry and to the economic sector is just almost incalculable." There are also fears of severe damage to fisheries and wildlife in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. An emergency shrimping season was opened on Thursday to allow fishermen to bring in their catch before it was fouled by the advancing oil. Navy vessels are helping to deploy booms to contain the spill. President Obama has dispatched high-level administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to the area. At a news conference on Friday, Ms Napolitano said the US government would continue to push BP for a strong response to the spill. Eleven workers are still missing, presumed dead, after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. Are you in the Gulf Coast area? Are you affected by the oil slick, or have you seen it spreading? Send us your comments using the form below. You can also send us your pictures and videos to +44 7725 100100 or email them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk Find out more about how to send your pictures At no time should you put yourself or others at risk. Name:
Email address:
Town and Country:
Phone number (optional):
Comments:
The BBC may edit your comments and cannot guarantee that all emails will be published.
Bookmark with: Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Approximate oil locations from April 27, 2010 to May 1, 2010
As reports came out yesterday that the oil spill caused by the explosion and sinking of an oil rig in Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana had reached the coast, the Obama administration announced a ban on all future offshore drilling at least until the investigation into the incident is completed.

Early Friday morning, the  received reports that oil from the spill had washed ashore, and while officials have not confirmed the reports, winds continue to push the slick northward towards land, and conditions are deteriorating, making cleanup of the spill increasingly difficult.  The Coast Guard said it was planning to conduct a flyover of the slick to determine its extent sometime on Friday. According to the National Weather Service, strong winds and thunderstorms are predicted to continue through the weekend, hindering cleanup efforts.

Also early on Friday morning, a senior government official, White House advisor , said that the government was immediately banning all new offshore drilling until the investigation into the spill had been completed.  His announcement came just after a month the administration relaxed restrictions of offshore drilling. 

The operation to clean up the spill has accelerated in recent days, with the  having joined the effort, as well as resources from the Coast Guard and  (BP), the lessor of the rig at the time of the explosion.  The total assets deployed in the operation are estimated to be around 1,900 people and more than 300 ships and aircraft.  Additionally, six remotely operated submarines are trying to stem the leaks, which now number three, at the ocean's floor.

On Wednesday, the estimated amount of oil spilling from the damaged well was raised to 5,000 barrels, or around 210,000 gallons, a day, five times the original estimate of 1,000 barrels a day.  This figure was later revised upwards again to 25,000 barrels (1.05 million gallons) per day. So far, the cleanup operation has laid around 210,000 feet of containment booms to protect vulnerable wildlife refuges on the Gulf Coast, and an additional 66,000 feet of boom has been provided by the US Navy.  Since the beginning of the operation, more than 18,000 gallons of an oil/water mix have been recovered from the ocean, and after a successful test burn of oil, plans are being made to scale the burns up.  According to a BP official, "We believe we can now scale that up and burn between 500 and 1,000 barrels at a time." The first test burned around 100 barrels of oil.

Despite the efforts, many are still worried about the potential consequences of the spill, and officials said that the damage could end up being more than that caused by the Exxon Valdez oil spill 20 years ago, which spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. One analyst said that he expected "that movement is going to continue to stress and fatigue the pipe and create more leaks," adding that "this is not on a good trajectory."

BP has developed two options to stop the flow of oil at the source, but both are expected to take at least weeks to complete. The first option is to lower large structures over the leak, which would allow the oil to be safely transported to the surface. BP is building one such structure, but it isn't expected to be completed for at least several weeks.  The second option is to drill a second well which would then plug the leak at the source. A well for this purpose will begin to be drilled within two days, although it could be up to three months before the leak is completely plugged.