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Tropical Storm Alex on June 28, 2010 delayed BP's response to the Macondo oil spill as rough seas forced the company to postpone launching the next phase of the containment process. Meanwhile, Shell, ExxonMobil, Anadarko Petroleum and BP evacuated non-essential personnel from several platforms in the Gulf of Mexico after a warning from the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

BP has said that it needs more time to assess the impact of the top kill procedure on its runaway Macondo exploration well continuing to spill oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The top kill procedure was halted overnight for engineers to assess the results and was to be again resumed.

Details of the situation wherein 1,000 b/d of crude oil was leaking on April 26, 2010, from the deepwater wellhead following an April 20, 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig at the Macondo exploration prospect off Louisiana are presented. The efforts made by the operator company BP to stop the crude leak and tackle the growing surface oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico are discussed.

Analysts at FBR Capital Markets revealed on November 10, 2010, that an oil and gas lease sale in the Central Gulf of Mexico planned for March 2011 is unlikely to take place. They stated that the need to complete a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS), as planned by federal regulators in the aftermath of BP Macondo oil spill on the Gulf, and an Environmental Assessment (EA) would not give enough time to prepare for U.S. Lease Sale 216.

Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has said that swarms of microbes in the Gulf of Mexico may have devoured a large oil plume from BP's Macondo exploration well. However, the same does not indicate that the environmental damage risk to the Gulf ecosystem and marine life resulting from the oil spill is over.

Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US agency has said that there are going to be several long-term impacts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Research is ongoing to get more information on the impact, but it is not an easy task.

The BG Group from the UK is not expecting to suffer any impact from BP's Macondo well oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on its deep water offshore wells in Brazil. However, the company is keeping a close eye on the investigative proceedings to see what emerges.

BP is hoping to commence the bottom kill procedure as a final solution for containment of the oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico from its Macondo runaway well from August 7, 2010 following a delay due to the Tropical Storm Bonnie. The only good news is that BP's sealing cap installation has already stopped further oil spill.

The construction of the final relief well to control the oil spill from BP's Macondo runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico was again delayed due to the approaching Tropical Storm Bonnie. BP has said that it will need a period of 10-12 days for reconnecting at the site before resuming relief well operations.

William Reilly, chairman of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling at the end of the second day of hearings has said that the panel would go all out to ensure an early end to the six month moratorium imposed on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico by U.S. President Barack Obama. The views of those in favor of the moratorium are compared with those against the same.

BP stated July 13, 2010 that it was holding talks with several companies to sell assets in an effort to raise up to US$10 billion to pay for the Macondo oil spill cleanup. Meanwhile, BP sold its crude oil storage facilities at Cushing, Oklahoma and its Houston-to-Texas City crude and refined product pipelines to Magellan Midstream Partners for US$289 million.

BP is working hard on installing a third containment to curtail the oil spill from its Macondo runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico despite choppy conditions and threat of more tropical weather. However, Commander Thad Allen, the BP national incident commander has warned that the containment is dependent on weather conditions.

BP & the Macondo oil spill response group headed by incident command Thad Allen are hoping to stick to the July 7, 2010 date for the third containment effort to curtail the oil spill from BP's Macondo runaway well into the Gulf of Mexico, while shrugging off the impact of Hurricane Alex. The relief well is 7-8 days ahead of schedule and so the July 7 date appears to be possible for the installation of the third containment device on the well.

Oil producers restarted rig operations in the Gulf of Mexico July 1, 2010 as Hurricane Alex made landfall in northern Mexico. However, BP's efforts to clean up the Macondo oil spill continued to be hampered by rough seas in the northern Gulf.

Experts have said that assessing damages against BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from its runaway Macondo exploration well is going to be a complex and difficult task. The main reason for the same is that dozens of federal and state criminal and civil statutes will have to be reconciled in order to arrive at a result, which could take a very long time.

U.S. President Barack Obama visited the Gulf to inspect the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by BP's runaway Macondo exploration well, while awaiting results of the top kill procedure undertaken by BP. Obama promised to support in cleaning the oil spill regardless of whatever results the top kill showed.