Stopping a potentially devastating slick from a damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is only part of the headache currently facing BP.
The company also faces a massive clean-up bill, plus legal action from those affected and possible damage to its global brand.
It is not the first time BP has faced controversy and anger in the US.
An explosion at a refinery in south Houston in 2005 killed 15 people and injured 170, the worst US industrial accident since 1990.
BP leases the Deepwater Horizon rig that suffered a huge explosion on 20 April and later sank. Eleven workers are still missing, presumed dead.
As alarm spread through US coastal communities most at threat from the giant spill, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said on Thursday that the cost of cleaning up the spill would fall on BP.
Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, was quick to grasp the gravity of the situation, flying to the US shortly after the accident, and saying his company was being "very aggressive" in its approach to the problem.
"This is the biggest response by anyone in the industry ever, and we're able to do it because we planned for it," he said. "We will be judged by our response."
Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer of exploration and production, said the company was spending $6m a day trying to clean up the spill and stop the leak.
It is more likely to prompt a gut feeling [in the markets] that the crisis will be expensive and damaging for the company
Russell Corn, corporate analysis firm Diligence
But he said it wasn't clear what had caused the spillage.
He told US broadcaster ABC: "The company that owned the drilling rig and that owned the blow-up preventer was Transocean and they were actually operating the rig.
"At the time the accident happened, the safety devices, we would have believed would have stopped the flow of oil, they didn't do that. We don't know why they didn't do that and ultimately we will find out."
BP's share price has already taken a big hit - dropping by 6.5% on Thursday after the US Coast Guard said five times as much oil as previously estimated was pouring into the gulf.
In all, BP stock has fallen by about 4.5% since the explosion.
'Wave of litigation'
Oil industry expert Michael Lynch, writing on the website of Gerson Lehrman Group, said containment and remedial costs could easily exceed $500m - and a wave of litigation seems sure to follow.
"Control of the well is without question the responsibility of BP," he said.
-Extract of BBC news
My thoughts on this article:
Whenever I chance upon an article with regards to oil spills, it saddens me as the thought of so many marine life dying because of the spillage/explosion.
Not only, this also leads to global warming.
It is indeed amazing how one things leads to another.
Even though the company has been fined, but from my point of view, money is not everything.
But my question is, what now? The company paid a huge amount of fine but what cause does will it occur to the environment?
Many marine animals' lives have been lost in such accident.
As Scientists are trying to breed specific species to stop extinction, it is an irony that such accidents happens.
I feel that at the rate oil spillages occurs, not only does that affect the marine animals lives, it will also affect the economy.
This is because, since many oil has been lost during the spillage, therefore we will not entitled to that much amount of oil. Oil will become scarce thus the raise in oil prices.
And when prices increases, taxi fares (for an example) will increase.
And when taxi fares increases, people like me won't be able to take a cab to school when we're running late because the price is simply too expensive.
See the impact? Do you see the chain effect?
To summarize my entire junk of words, it's an extract of an article from BBC news & my point of view about oil spillage and the effects of it.
