2010-06-21 09:24

 'NOTHING IS SATISFACTORY'

Despite assurances of swift compensation, Louisiana Gulf residents remained skeptical.

"Every time they say there's a fund for fisherman, we wait years and years," said Tal Plork, whose fisherman husband, Phan, faced long waits for aid after two hurricanes rampaged across the Gulf region in 2008. "It was like that for Gustav and Ike. Hopefully now they will go faster."

Plork, 42, has had to go to work since the oil leak began because her husband's fishing income has dried up. She works at a cafeteria at the BP camp in Venice, Louisiana, and has been supporting her five children mainly on credit cards.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, also appearing on "Meet the Press," said he was anxious to see the well capped, the spill cleaned up and BP cover the entire cost.

"Nothing is satisfactory until the well is shut in. When the well is capped, then clean up the oil, and then BP pays the bills. Until all of that is done, nothing is satisfactory," said Barbour, a Republican.

Barbour said he thought the US federal government "has done more right than wrong" in its handling of the disaster.

After falling 6.8 percent last week, BP's shares are down 26 percent so far in June, their worst month since the October 1987 market crash.

Despite the battering to its reputation and stock stemming from the disaster, hedge fund T2 Partners said it likes shares in the British oil firm, according to a Barron's article published on Sunday.

In a column titled "Other Voices," T2's managing partners said their reasons for recently taking a new position in BP are that it is "extraordinarily cheap," and that the firm is "highly likely" to be able to cover clean-up, damages, fines and lawsuits relating to the disaster.