Bacteria and Efforts thus Far have Cleaned up 74% of the Oil from BP's Mess

A headline that would even make BP Plc. (NYSE:BP) poster child Tony Hayward smile, too bad he's out as CEO.

Bloomberg today wrote - About 74% of the oil that leaked from BP Plc’s damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico has been eliminated or will soon be eaten by bacteria, according to a U.S. government report.

The remaining oil may be on the surface of the water, buried beneath sand and sediment, or was collected from the region’s beaches, according to the report released today by a team led by the Interior Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked from BP’s Macondo well between April 20 and July 15, according to government scientists. BP was able to capture about 800,000 barrels of crude from the well before it entered the Gulf. The leak began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers.

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“Less oil on the surface does not mean that there isn’t oil still in the water column or that our beaches and marshes aren’t still at risk,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator of NOAA, said in a press release. “Knowing generally what happened to the oil helps us better understand areas of risk and likely impacts.”

The report on oil in the Gulf comes as London-based BP reported a “significant milestone” today toward plugging the well permanently. Engineers carried out the “static kill” to inject drilling mud over a period of eight hours yesterday to control the well’s pressure.

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SOURCE: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-04/u-s-says-74-of-bp-oil-gone-from-gulf-waters-after-worst-accidental-spill.html