US President Barack Obama will visit the Gulf Coast scene of the oil slick within the next 48 hours, the White House announced Saturday.
A state of emergency has already been declared in Louisiana and Florida, as oil from the exploded British Petroleum rig reaches the shoreline, DPA reported.
Gulf states Alabama and Mississippi are also likely to be affected as the 5,000-square-kilometre slick spreads along the coast.
Obama has already ordered the state department to conduct a review of what caused the explosion of British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon floating rig on April 20 and identify extra security precautions needed on other rigs, barring any new government leases on drilling until the results were in.
Precise details of the president's trip were not released.