Who gets the oil skimmed from the Gulf?

caradrayan

So, I was talking to some conservative relatives earlier this evening. They argued that Obama's response to the BP geyser has been worse than Bush's response to Katrina. Specifically, they wanted to know why he hadn't waived the Jones act and allowed foreign oil skimmers to operate in the Gulf.

So, I began my research. I don't have the patience to tease out how many miles of boom or how much dispersant, or how many volunteer crews were mobilized in the Gulf, but I did learn that the Jones act could easily be interpreted as not applying to vessels that skim spilled oil.

http://keithhennessey.com/2010/06/18/how-to-waive-the-jones-act/

My relatives specifically mentioned the A-Wale. I learned that this ship has not been rejected, but that it is waiting to clear bureaucratic hurdles, and that BP has said it needs a waiver from the Jones act.

Here is my question, who owns the oil skimmed from the gulf? Logic would suggest to me that whoever skims it should get it. It was floating in the water after all. But the need for the A-Wale to enter into a contract with BP suggests that BP still owns the oil. can anyone here clarify?

Perpetual

BP.

Kagera

G20 protesters so they may symbolically bathe their kids in it.

agoaj

I was under the impression the spilled oil was practically unusable.

SageinaRage

Obama would have to do a lot more than be slow on allowing some skimmers into the gulf for his response to be anywhere near as bad as Bush's on Katrina.

theSquid

How many people has the oil spill killed and how many people has the slow response on Katrina killed? I think that's a pretty good if rudimentary metric to go by.

Hawkstone

Bp still technically owns it, but the stuff is almost useless. I work in the pipeline industry and with it being that wet you could never put it on a pipeline to send it anywhere because it would contaminate the line. It will take forever to dry it to a usable level so it will likely be stored and blended in very very minimal amounts into other products until its used up.