Coast Guard conducts ‘in situ burn’ of oil spill

By Ben Raines
May 11, 2010, 5:00AM One day of controlled burning at the site of the Deepwater Horizon spill apparently destroyed more oil than virtually all of the skimming efforts, according to Press-Register calculations. The drilling rig exploded April 20 and oil began spewing into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles south of Pascagoula. Despite pre-approval for burning in response to such a crisis, officials did not conduct a test burn until April 28. The Press-Register has reported that federal officials apparently did not immediately have access to a fire boom. No federal laws require oil companies to keep fire boom on hand in U.S. waters. Well owner BP PLC reported burning about 9,000 barrels — about 378,000 gallons — of oil during burns on Thursday. By contrast, as of Sunday afternoon, skimming efforts since the spill began had recovered roughly 350,000 gallons of oil, according to Press-Register calculations using federal and company data. About 3.5 million gallons of oily water has been skimmed off the surface during that time, according to a response timeline released by federal officials. But Doug Suttles, an executive with well owner BP PLC, has said 90 percent of the skimmed material is water.
Reports released by federal officials suggest that skimming has been used on all but two days since the rig accident. …

Controlled burning destroys more oil at Deepwater Horizon site than skimming