U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday criticized British oil giant BP for spending money on advertising and paying dividends to shareholders on his third trip to the oil-stained Louisiana Gulf Coast in a month.

"My understanding is that BP has contracted for 50 million dollars worth of TV advertising to manage their image during the course of this disaster," Obama said. "In addition, there are reports that BP will be paying 10.5 billion dollars in dividend payments this quarter."

"Now I don't have a problem with BP fulfilling its legal obligations, but I want BP to be very clear they've got moral and legal obligations here in the Gulf for the damage that has been done," he said after arriving at the New Orleans airport for his third inspection tour, and his second in eight days.

"And what I don't want to hear is, when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they're nickel and diming fishermen or small businesses here in the Gulf."

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, owned by Transocean and leased by BP, sank April 22 some 52 km off Venice, Louisiana, after burning for roughly 36 hours. The untapped wellhead continues gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The White House has called the spill the biggest environmental disaster that the country has ever faced.

With the oil continuing to come ashore, criticism of the spill response mounted. Obama has come under pressure to show that his administration is in charge of the effort to contain and stop the spill.

Opinion polls show many Americans are unhappy with his handling of the six-week-old spill, and Gulf coast residents have complained that the federal government has been slow to act and too dependent on energy giant BP for solutions.