Gulf Oil Spill Cleanup | featured news

Dig 2 feet into the sand on this wind-swept beach and up comes the foul smell of oil.

A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

As BP inched closer to permanently sealing the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, congressional investigators railed the company and Coast Guard for part of the cleanup effort, saying too much toxic chemical dispersant was used.

Spill from blowout is degrading rapidly in warm waters, becoming tougher to find, director says.

The federal official leading the Gulf oil spill cleanup said Friday a new containment cap and an additional ship collecting oil could effectively contain the spill in the next three days.

Local officials say the government’s plan to build rock dams to capture oil in the Gulf of Mexico is too risky.

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day. The disparity between what BP promised in its March 24 filing with federal regulators and the amount of oil recovered since the April 20 explosion underscores what some officials and environmental groups call a misleading numbers game that has led to widespread confusion about the extent of the spill and the progress of the recovery.

Tests on a supertanker adapted to skim large quantities of oily water from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico are inconclusive because of high seas, ship owner TMT Shipping Offshore said on Monday.

BP says that it has now spent more than $3 billion in attempts to stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico and to settle damage claims.

Makers promise that newly converted tanker, dubbed "A Whale," will process up to 21M gallons of oil-fouled water a day; testing is underway.