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An US Government report has revealed that about 74 percent of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been effectively dealt with by capture, burning, skimming, evaporation, dissolution or dispersion. It also calculated that about 26 percent of the chemicals in the oil evaporated at the surface or dissolved into seawater, which can cause some problems but is less likely to pose much additional risk of harm. According to The New York Times, the report has estimated that five percent of the oil was burned at the surface, while three percent was skimmed and eight percent was broken up into tiny droplets using chemical dispersants. Another 16 percent dispersed naturally as the oil shot out of the well at high speed. “I think we are fortunate in this situation that the rates of degradation in the gulf ecosystem are quite high,” Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the lead agency in producing the new report, said. Meanwhile, British Petroleum has begun pumping heavy drilling mud into its stricken well in the Gulf of Mexico, a procedure known as ‘static kill’, on Tuesday to permanently seal the shaft or at least reveal critical clues on how to kill it before the end of this month.

‘74 percent of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been effectively dealt with’