www.timesofearth.com SAN FRANCISCO – Oil giant BP has said that it will pay for all the cleanup costs from a ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico that could continue spewing crude oil for at least another week. The British company issued a statement on its website on Monday, saying that it took responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon spill and would pay compensation for legitimate claims for property damage, personal injury and commercial losses. “We are responsible, not for the accident, but we are responsible for the oil and for dealing with it and cleaning the situation up,” Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, said on Monday on the TV show, Good Morning America. He said that the equipment that failed on the rig and led to the spill belonged to a company called Transocean, and not BP. Guy Cantwell, a Transocean spokesman, said that they would not speculate but rather wait for all the facts before drawing a conclusion. Eric Holder, the US attorney general, said that the justice department was taking part in an ongoing investigation into the spill. “We are part of an ongoing monitoring [effort] and investigation along with our partners at DHS [the department of homeland security] and other agencies that are involved,” Holder said. However, a justice department official said that it was yet not a criminal probe. Barack Obama, the US president, said on Sunday that his administration would require BP to bear all costs. “BP is responsible for this leak; BP will be paying …
