WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced that the U.S.’s largest oil spill was near an end, as BP reportedly reached a “significant milestone” in its efforts to permanently seal the Deepwater Horizon well.

“The long battle is finally close to coming to an end, and we are very pleased with that,” President Obama said. He has been heavily criticized for not responding to the oil spill with enough force, as the public demanded a stronger response against BP and in reaction to the millions of barrels of oil spilling into the ocean. However, the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center released a report on Wednesday saying that the vast majority of the oil released form the oil spill has either evaporated, burned, skimmed, recovered, or dispersed largely due to Federal efforts.

“An estimated 33 percent of the total amount of oil released in the Deepwater Horizon spill was captured or mitigated by the Unified Command recovery operations, including burning, skimming, chemical dispersion, and direct recovery from the well head,” the release said.

The Federal government has further announced that teams of scientists and experts are carefully tracking the oil, and have been since the day of the spill. While there is still more analysis to be done to determine the rate of biodegradation in the Gulf of Mexico, early observations and preliminary research shows that oil from the spill is biodegrading quickly.

President Obama described the static kill operation, and a report from the Federal government reporting that about 75% of the spilled oil has been dealt with by the clean-up effort, as “very welcome news”.

White House Press Secretary said that it is the beginning of the end of the sealing and containment phase of the operation. The White House, in addition, said that the Administration was responsible for leading a “robust” response to the disaster, saying that the clean-up would not have been as successful had it not pushed BP “every step of the way”.

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