Gulf Oil Spill | featured news

Oil threatens to obliterate billions of dollars for the region's fishing and tourism industries.

The chatter began weeks ago as armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico: What about nuking the well?

Decades ago, the Soviet Union reportedly used nuclear blasts to successfully seal off runaway gas wells, inserting a bomb deep underground and letting its fiery heat melt the surrounding rock to shut off the flow. Why not try it here?

BP Plc (BP.L) has hit a snag in its attempt to saw through a riser pipe in a risky operation to funnel leaking oil from a blown-out Gulf of Mexico well to the surface, the top US official overseeing the cleanup effort said on ...

Attorney General Eric Holder opened a criminal and civil investigation Tuesday into possible negligence or malfeasance in the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

April 20, 2010 - Explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd's drilling rig Deepwater Horizon licensed to BP; 11 workers are killed. The rig was drilling in BP's Macondo project 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, beneath about 5000 feet of water and ...

President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of a panel he created to probe the worst oil spill in U.S. history on Tuesday, as a giant slick from BP's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well poses a new threat to the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.

Robot submarines carried equipment and cut small pipes at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico on Monday to prepare to place a new containment valve over the blown-out well this week, while BP crews began working on yet another containment plan that could be added after the cut-and-cap effort.

BP's attempt to plug the Gulf oil leak with mud and cement has failed, yet another setback in the company's attempt to stop the crude from further fouling waters, wildlife and marshland.

As crews pump mud in "top kill" maneuver, scientists increase estimate of oil flow; Minerals Management Service director leaves her job.

President Barack Obama will announce on Thursday that a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling will continue for six months while a commission studies the reasons for the Gulf of Mexico spill, a White House aide said.