Oil Spill, Bp Oil Spill Hearing | featured news

Drilling continued despite a leak on a critical safety device, a company official told investigators.

GOP lawmaker says he's "ashamed" of how firm has been treated, drawing immediate criticism. Under pressure from Republican leaders who threatened to remove him from a ranking committee position, Rep Joe Barton (R-Tex.) late Thursday retracted his apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the way his company has been treated by the US government -- a comment that had drawn heavy criticism from both parties.

Executives from other major oil companies turned on BP Plc and defended their own drilling practices during a congressional hearing on Tuesday as they sought to stave off new government regulations in the wake of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of a panel he created to probe the worst oil spill in U.S. history on Tuesday, as a giant slick from BP's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well poses a new threat to the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.

BP PLC told Congress Tuesday its massive Gulf oil spill was caused by the failure of a key safety device made by another company. In turn, that company says BP was in charge, and that a third company that poured concrete to plug the exploratory well didn't do it right. The third company, which was plugging the well in anticipation of future production, says it was only following BP's plan.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce Tuesday afternoon that he is splitting the embattled Minerals Management Service into two parts, according to an Interior Department official who asked not to be identified.