WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Following are remarks by
President Barack Obama provided by the White House.

As Prepared for Delivery

Address to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Oval Office

Good evening. As we speak, our nation faces a multitude of
challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and
rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly
every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are
taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight,
I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you
about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is
assaulting our shores and our citizens.

On April 20th, an explosion ripped through BP's Deepwater
Horizon drilling rig, about forty miles off the coast of
Louisiana. Eleven workers lost their lives. Seventeen others
were injured. And soon, nearly a mile beneath the surface of
the ocean, oil began spewing into the water.

Because there has never been a leak of this size at this
depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology.
That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our
nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge
" a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist
and our nation's Secretary of Energy. Scientists at our
national labs and experts from academia and other oil companies
have also provided ideas and advice.

As a result of these efforts, we have directed BP to
mobilize additional equipment and technology. In the coming
days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90% of the
oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company
finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is
expected to stop the leak completely.

Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster
America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a
hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a
matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that
have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic,
one that we will be fighting for months and even years.