oil spill news stories on Newser

Fishing Haul Way Down in Estuary Near BP Spill

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:45:05 CDT

The seafood stats are in for the Gulf's 2011 harvest, and though the finger-pointing (at BP and the oil spill, of course) has begun, the numbers paint a complicated picture. Last year was the first full year of fishing since the spill, and some areas definitely saw a depressed catch:...

Exxon Mopping Up New Oil Spill

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:15:59 CDT

Amid reports of eyeless shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico, some good news for BP: There's a new oil spill, and it's not theirs. Rather, Exxon Mobil is cleaning up about 80,000 gallons of oil that spilled from a pipeline in rural Louisiana. The company says the pipeline was...

Feds: Engineer Deleted 200 BP Spill Texts

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:06:05 CDT

The Justice Department said today it filed the first criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, accusing a former BP engineer of destroying evidence. Kurt Mix was arrested on two counts of obstruction of justice, and is accused of deleting a string of 200 text...

Charges Loom in Deepwater Disaster

Kevin Spak — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:40:45 CST

US authorities are on the verge of bringing their first criminal charges related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, with several Houston-based engineers and at least one BP supervisor likely facing felonies, sources tell the Wall Street Journal . The men are suspected of providing false information to regulators regarding the risks...

BP: Halliburton Torched Evidence in Gulf Oil Spill

Kevin Spak — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:20:55 CST

Halliburton has both intentionally destroyed and conveniently lost evidence relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster , according to court documents filed by BP. “Halliburton has steadfastly refused to provide these critical testing and modeling results in discovery,” BP’s court filing says, according to CNN . “BP has now learned the reason for...

Crashed Cargo Ship's Captain Arrested

Kevin Spak — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:51:05 CDT

Bad news keeps spilling out of the cargo ship Rena , and New Zealand wants to hold her captain responsible. Officials say the captain has been arrested for “operating a vessel in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk,” reports the BBC , which notes that the Rena plowed into a well-documented...

NZ to Pump Oil From Grounded Cargo Ship

Polly Davis Doig — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:26:27 CDT

Crews are getting ready to pump some of the 1,700 metric tons of fuel aboard a cargo ship grounded off the coast of New Zealand, as gale-force wind and rain forecast for tomorrow threatens to break up the Liberian-flagged Rena and trigger an environmental disaster. "The top priority is...

Oil Appearing Around BP Well Again

Matt Cantor — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:28:57 CDT

A year after BP capped its ill-fated Macondo well, oil is once again appearing on the surface overhead. Oil blobs climbed to the surface and spread into patches 4 and 5 feet wide, the Press-Register reports. The thin sheen covered an area some 50 yards wide and a quarter-mile long....

Constant Oil Leaks Killing Gibraltar Bay: Critics

Luke Kelly-Clyne — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 10:42:42 CDT

As blame spreads between Spain and the UK, so too does ecosystem-destroying oil in the Strait of Gibraltar. Europe's No. 1 transfer port, located between the towering Rock of Gibraltar and the Spanish fishing town of Algercias is, on any one day, home to tens of oil tankers and ocean...