BP Doesn't Have a Tanker Big Enough

Oil giant will resort to burning some of the crude
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 9, 2010 4:45 AM CDT
BP Doesn't Have a Tanker Big Enough
In this Monday, June 7, 2010 photo, patches of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill are seen from an underwater vantage, Monday, June 7, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico south of Venice, La..   (AP Photo/Rich Matthews)

Adding to the growing international backlash against BP's botched handling of the Gulf oil spill, US officials said yesterday that the oil giant is collecting for sale so much of the oil gushing out of the broken well that it doesn't have a big enough boat to hold it, the Wall Street Journal reports. BP's latest solution? Burn it at the surface in a smokeless contraption called an EverGreen Burner, reports the AP.

"It's being brought in because it can handle far more oil than this well is producing," says one expert of the burn rig. The move is the latest to call into question BP's preparedness—as well as the true quantity of oil gushing from the busted wellhead, notes the AP, which some experts say could be far greater than official government estimates.
(More British Petroleum stories.)

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