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Obama summons Svanberg over oil spill

Peter Vinthagen Simpson
Peter Vinthagen Simpson - [email protected]
Obama summons Svanberg over oil spill

US president Barrack Obama has called BP's Swedish chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg to a meeting at the White House to discuss the Mexican Gulf oil catastrophe.

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Carl-Henric Svanberg, who took over as BP chairman only in January, has been asked to attend a meeting on June 16th over what has been described as "America's worst environmental disaster".

"Our administration is not going to rest or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods," Thad Allen, a Coast Guard admiral who is heading the US government response, in his letter to Svanberg.

Svanberg has come into criticism in the media for his silence over the developing oil spill. The former Ericsson CEO's response has been that the management of the crisis in a operations issue and thus the responsibility of CEO Tony Howard, who has not been invited to the meeting.

President Obama last week said if Howard had worked for him he would have been fired.

The Deepwater Horizon leak is reported to have been spewing as much as 40,000 barrels per day into the Mexican Gulf, according ot he US Geological Survey cited by the BBC, before a cap was put on the leak on June 3rd.

"The potential devastation to the Gulf Coast, its economy, and its people require relentless efforts to stop the leak and contain the damage," Allen said, adding that BP is responsible for the full costs of the spill.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is due to meet with President Obama on the weekend to discuss the spill amid assurances that US-UK ties will not be affected by the crisis.

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