Bp Oil Spill | featured news

The state of Alabama has filed suit against BP, Transocean and others responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to Alabama Attorney General Troy King.

A lack of screening of oil spill cleanup workers may have resulted in a convicted sex offender being charged with raping a co-worker. A CNN investigation into the incident reveals that basic background checks were not done on those hired to remove oil from the beaches in and around Pascagoula.

BP Plc said on Friday it has completed a pressure test on its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well and those results are under review by government scientists and the British oil company.

BP said it has made an initial deposit of $3 billion into a $20 billion spill-recovery fund.

BP PLC says it may in the future drill in the same Gulf of Mexico oil reservoir that blew its top and caused one of the world's worst spills. Officials said Friday at a news briefing in New Orleans that the company hasn't closed the door to tapping the reservoir again. Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles says "there's lots of oil and gas here." He says "we're going to have to think about what to do with that at some point."

BP claimed a key victory Wednesday in the effort to plug its blown-out well as a government report said much of the spilled oil is gone — though what's left is still nearly five times the amount that poured from the Exxon Valdez.

Only about 26 percent of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak is still in the water or onshore, and most of it is diluted and breaking down rapidly, officials say.

Gov't scientists now estimate nearly 5 million barrels of oil have leaked into the Gulf since April, easily topping Mexico's 1979 spill of 3.3 million barrels | DAY 105Questions on Dispersants |

A key two-step procedure to seal BP Plc.'s Macondo well could begin late on Monday, the top U.S. oil spill official said on Sunday.

As BP inched closer to permanently sealing the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico, congressional investigators railed the company and Coast Guard for part of the cleanup effort, saying too much toxic chemical dispersant was used.