Obama To See Oil Spill...BP Downplayed Disaster

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is planning to head to the Gulf Coast sometime in the next 48 hours to get an update on efforts to contain the massive spill from an offshore drilling rig.

A senior administration official says details of the trip are still being worked out, and Obama will likely travel with a "small footprint" - meaning a very small entourage. The official spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because the trip has not been officially announced.

Obama has vowed his administration will do all that it can to battle the spill, which came from a BP exploratory rig. It began washing ashore Thursday and is already the worst in U.S. waters in decades.

The damage began as documents emerged showing British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the rig that exploded, burned and sank.

BP's 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis said an accident leading to a giant crude oil spill and resulting environmental damage was unlikely, or virtually impossible.

The Coast Guard estimates now that at least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled, threatening to make it the worst U.S. oil disaster since the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Environmental lawyer Robert Wiygul says he doesn't see anything in the BP document suggesting the company addressed the kind of technology needed to control a spill at that depth of water. He says they should have had a plan in place.