Gulf oil spill

WASHINGTON, June 17 (UPI) -- A day after a White House meeting, BP officials head again to Capitol Hill to talk about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Officials, including BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, promised to deliver $20 billion for an account to guarantee compensation for the oil spill, which started April 20 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

Eleven workers died in the blast and millions of gallons of oil have spewed into the gulf since, fouling fishing areas and threatening environmentally sensitive shorelines. The $20 billion fund is to help those whose livelihood is directly affected by the spill.

Members of Congress are convening another committee meeting, with BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward the main witness, to take the company to task for the incident. The reception won't be kind.

Hayward's prepared opening statement to the committee concludes: "I give my pledge as leader of BP that we will not rest until we stop this well, mitigate the environmental impact of the spill and address economic claims in a responsible manner. No resource available to this company will be spared. We and the entire industry will learn from this terrible event and emerge from it stronger, smarter and safer."

In the gulf, BP engineers said a second containment system was in place and additional oil should be captured by the device.