BP boss disputes oil plume claims

BP boss Tony Hayward disputed claims today that large undersea plumes had been set adrift by the Gulf oil spill.

The oil giant’s chief executive said the clean-up fight had narrowed to surface slicks rolling into Louisiana’s coastal marshes.

During a tour of a company staging area for clean-up workers, Mr Hayward said BP’s sampling showed “no evidence” that oil was suspended in large masses beneath the surface. He did not elaborate on how the testing was done.

“The oil is on the surface,” he said. “Oil has a specific gravity that’s about half that of water. It wants to get to the surface because of the difference in specific gravity.”

Scientists from several universities have reported plumes of what appears to be oil suspended in clouds stretching for miles and reaching hundreds of feet beneath the Gulf’s surface.

Those findings – from the University of South Florida, the University of Georgia, Southern Mississippi University and other institutions – were based on initial observations of water samples taken in the Gulf over the last several weeks. They continue to be analysed.

One researcher said yesterday that their findings were bolstered by the fact that scientists from different institutions had come to similar conclusions after doing separate testing.

“There’s been enough evidence from enough different sources,” said marine scientist James Cowan of Louisiana State University, who reported finding a plume of oil last week about 50 miles from the spill site that reached to depths of at least 400 feet.

Mr Hayward said BP’s efforts were concentrated on fighting surface slicks.

At the company’s bustling Venice, Louisiana, staging centre, the embattled chief executive tramped through the mud to inspect stacks of orange-coloured booms being deployed to protect Louisiana’s fragile brackish marshes.

He said the company was pouring clean-up resources into Louisiana for a fight that could last months and that the effort would continue until “every drop” of oil was cleaned up.

Hundreds of workers already are set up in “floating hotels” at the mouth of the Mississippi River, from where they can quickly respond to slicks of crude once they are spotted in the marshes, Mr Hayward said.

An estimated 18 to 40 million gallons of oil have been unleashed since BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform exploded and sank last month, killing 11 people.