WASHINGTON — A visibly angered President Barack Obama hit out at oil companies Friday for trying to avoid blame over a massive slick, and vowed an all-out effort to stop the leak pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.

“I will not tolerate more finger-pointing or irresponsibility. The people of the Gulf Coast need our help,” Obama said, as he also unveiled a review of the environmental safeguards to be put in place for oil and gas exploration.

He slammed the three oil companies linked to the Deepwater Horizon rig for seeking to pass the blame, denouncing what he called a “ridiculous spectacle” by their top officials during congressional hearings. And he also accused oil companies of enjoying a “cozy relationship” with federal agencies set up to monitor the energy sector.

Obama said he shared the “anger and frustration” of Gulf Coast residents that more than three weeks after the rig was crippled by an explosion on April 20, the oil is still spewing unchecked into the seas.

“I’m not going to rest or be satisfied until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil in the Gulf is contained and cleaned up, and the people of the Gulf are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods,” he vowed.

Earlier this week the president dispatched a team of top officials  — including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist — to BP’s command center in Houston, Texas, to discuss efforts to contain the leak.

“What really matters is this: There’s oil leaking and we need to stop it, we need to stop it as soon as possible,” Obama said Friday in his statement in the Rose Garden.

“I know BP is committed to pay for the response effort. We will hold them to their obligation,” Obama said.

“I have to say, though, I did not appreciate what I considered to be a ridiculous spectacle during the congressional hearings into this matter.”

BP, which had leased the rig from Transocean, has pledged to pay for the cleanup efforts and all reasonable damages.

But in testifying before lawmakers this week, top executives from the two companies, as well as oil services supplier Halliburton, which carried out some vital cement work, traded accusations as to who was to blame for the accident.

“I understand that there are legal and financial issues involved, and a full investigation will tell us exactly what happened,” Obama said.

“But it is pretty clear that the system failed and it failed badly. For that, there’s enough responsibility to go around.

“For too long, for a decade or more, there’s been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill.”