By Ed Stoddard and Sarah Irwin

VENICE, La. (Reuters) – Oil from BP’s out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, U.S. forecasters said on Monday, as public anger surged over the country’s worst environmental disaster.

U.S. government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out deepwater well feeding the catastrophic spill may not be shut off until August as the company begins preparations on a new but uncertain attempt to contain the leaking crude.

By Ed Stoddard

GOLDEN MEADOW, La. (Reuters) – Carol Terrebonne, a wholesale retailer who buys shrimp off the boats in southern Louisiana, laughs when asked about the $5,000 hardship payout she has received from energy giant BP to cushion the economic impact of the Gulf oil spill.

“It barely pays the power bill. I have two facilities and they have ice machines and cold storage,” she said in her cramped roadside office, seated beneath pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

By Ed Stoddard and Sarah Irwin

VENICE, La. (Reuters) – U.S. government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out oil well causing an environmental disaster on the Gulf Coast may not be stopped until August as the company begins preparations on a new attempt to capture the leaking crude.

The disaster, in its 42nd day on Monday, is already the largest oil spill in U.S. history and officials are calling it the country’s biggest environmental catastrophe.

By Ed Stoddard and Sarah Irwin

VENICE, La. (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers and local residents clamored on Sunday for BP and the Obama administration to do more to save the Gulf Coast from an out-of-control oil spill that has become the biggest environmental catastrophe in the country’s history.

Lawmakers from U.S. President Barack Obama’s own Democratic Party called the nearly six-week oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico an “environmental crime” and demanded $1 billion from BP to protect the region’s treasured marshlands.

By Ed Stoddard and Sarah Irwin

VENICE, La. (Reuters) – BP Plc’s “top kill” oil well plug failed on Saturday, practically killing any optimism among Gulf coast residents that the mammoth spill fouling their coast and fishing industry will end any time soon.

Even U.S. President Barack Obama, hit with a tide of criticism that he is not sufficiently in command of the largest oil spill in U.S. history, has tried to lower expectations of a short-term fix.

/HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc said on Saturday its complex “top kill” maneuver to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.

It may be another two months before the London-based energy giant can definitively turn off the gusher — a delay that could undermine U.S. President Barack Obama as he faces growing criticism for a perceived slow response to the disaster.

/HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc said on Saturday the complex “top kill” maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.

The beleaguered London-based energy giant said its next option is a “lower marine riser package” that will not plug the well ruptured in a rig blast, but rather capture most of the oil on the sea floor and channel it to the surface for collection.

/HOUSTON, May 29 (Reuters) – BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said
on Saturday the complex “top kill” maneuver to plug its Gulf of
Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to
the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.

The beleaguered London-based energy giant said its next
option is a “lower marine riser package” that will not plug the
well ruptured in a rig blast, but rather capture most of the
oil on the sea floor and channel it to the surface for
collection.

, May 29 (Reuters) – BP Plc’s
(BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) (BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) “top kill” has not stopped a Gulf of Mexico oil leak
and the company is assessing whether to continue or move on to
something else, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said on
Saturday.

“I don’t think the amount of oil coming out has changed,” he
said at a news conference at Fourchon Beach, Louisiana. “Just by
watching it, we don’t believe it’s changed.”

By Tom Bergin and Ed Stoddard

NEW ORLEANS/VENICE, La. (Reuters) – The worst oil spill in U.S. history hits its 40th day on Saturday with Gulf residents clinging to one tenuous hope: that BP’s complicated “top kill” operation will plug the gushing well.

Beleaguered Louisiana residents heard from President Barack Obama and BP CEO Tony Hayward on separate visits to the Gulf coast on Friday as they tried to get a handle on a crisis damaging the credibility of both the government and BP.