The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been called a potentially unprecedented environmental disaster by US President Barack Obama.Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said it could take up to three months to drill relief wells that could fully contain the spillage, and that as much as 100.000 barrels could be spilled every day. That would make it the biggest oil spill in the US history, according to NTB.The focus now is to prevent any further damage to the Gulf coast, Obama said from Louisiana according to the BBC. Mr Obama stressed that BP was responsible and that he expected BP to pay.BP has constructed a gigantic dome which will be lowered down to cover the leaking well and trap the oil inside the dome, in six to eight days. This was expected to take two to four weeks.

Catastrophe

The satellite photos from Friday indicated that the oil slick is three times bigger than previously estimated, says researcher Hans Gruber at Miami University.The leak was caused by an explosion on Deepwater Horizon 20 April.

Read more: Deepwater Horizon fire rages.

Experts worry that the the spill could eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster as the worst in US history.With a spill of 5.000 barrels per day it ll reach Exxon Valdez size in two months, and then it ll be a major catastrophe, says Tyler Priest, from the Universitety in Houston, to Reuters. The slick covers an area of 9,000 square kilometres.