No good solutions to U.S. Gulf oil spill yet
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New method
In Washington, U.S. authorities are weighing the pros and cons of a new BP method to break up the spill with dispersant chemicals injected underwater in addition to the traditional method of using dispersants on the surface.
In fact, BP has already attempted to inject the chemicals near the source of the leak deep underwater.
Oil has been gushing out of the seabed since at least April 22, when the Deepwater Horizon rig sank two days after an explosion and fire.
Charlie Henry, an official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday that the government is evaluating the pros and cons of the new method, trying to determine what method makes the biggest mitigation to the pollution threat.
"This is a unique idea to insert dispersants near the seafloor. But there are a lot of unknowns associated with this," he said.
Henry said the dispersants being used in the Gulf show "fairly low toxicity." However, toxicologists and environmental scientists said while the dispersants are unlikely to cause immediate harm to people, they can have a big impact on marine organisms that are directly exposed.
Oil price hike unlikely
Despite its huge environmental and political fallout, experts say the incident is unlikely to push up gas prices in the United States.
Many offshore oil rigs in the Gulf appear to be operating normally while the refineries in the region, which account for 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity, continue to make and ship gasoline, they say.
The oil market has so far shrugged off the spill, even as the government scrambles to contain it.
Tom Kloza, an oil analyst, said the spill is a huge environmental and political story, but "definitely should not be an economic story with the price of oil in the next few months."
The Gulf region accounts for roughly 30 percent of the U.S. domestic oil production. But the oil travels to shore via undersea pipelines and won't be affected by a spill, said Ken Medlock, an energy research fellow at Rice University.
Oil traders are more focused on the global economy than on the spill. The price of oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 3.45 dollars Tuesday, closing at 82.74 dollars per barrel.
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