Suzanne Goldenberg: BP to End Cleanup in Gulf Oil Spill

BP will officially be off the hook foe any deposits of oil that wash up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico , unless they can be traced directly to the Macondo well, it has emerged. Under a plan approved by the Coast Guard on 2 November, the oil company will end active cleanup operations and focus on restoring the areas damaged by last year's oil disaster. The plan, which was obtained by the Associated Press, sets out a protocol for determining which areas of the Gulf still need to be cleaned, and when BP's responsibility for that would end. The plan "provides the mechanisms for ceasing active cleanup operations" AP said. It went on to suggest the biggest effort would be reserved for the most popular, heavily visited beaches. More oil would be tolerated on remote beaches. BP will be responsible for cleaning up thick oil in marshes, unless officials decide it is best to let nature do its work. The agency quoted coast guard officials, saying the plan represented an important milestone in restoring the Gulf. BP has set aside about $1bn for restoration. The Obama administration has been indicating for some time that the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, which began on 20 April 2010 with an explosion on board the Deep-water Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers, was moving into a second phase. Earlier on Tuesday, the US government rolled out a new five-year plan for selling offshore drilling leases. The proposal was a radically scaled back version of the president's earlier plans for offshore drilling, put forward just a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon blowout, that would have opened up the Arctic and Atlantic coasts for drilling.