Crude oil continues to wash ashore along the Gulf of Mexico coast a year after BP Plc (BP/) stopped the flow from its damaged Macondo well, which caused the worst U.S. offshore spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. On June 4, the last available tally from field inspections, 530 miles of coastline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida remained contaminated by oil, said Tim Zink, a spokesman for the agency. That’s down from a high of 1,074 miles. The U.S. government estimates that 4.9 million barrels were spilled into the Gulf from Macondo before London-based BP succeeded in capping the flow a year ago today. “I’d characterize it as a light sheen and tar balls of all shapes and sizes,” Zink said in an interview yesterday. “For roughly the first year, it was heavy, moderate to light oiling. This is light.” The pollution of Gulf coast beaches is one of several headwinds BP faces as Europe’s second-largest oil company seeks to rebuild its business and reputation in the U.S. The U.K. oil producer’s share price remains about 30 percent below its pre- spill level and has gained 13 percent since the spill ended. How long the oiling will persist, the extent of damage it has caused and how much it may yet inflict it still being studied. A November estimate by NOAA, disputed by BP, found about 1.1 million barrels of oil unaccounted for after adjusting for amounts that were recovered, dispersed into the sea, burned and evaporated into the air. NOAA is investigating a surge in deaths of baby dolphins along the Gulf coast during the spring calving season, Zink said. Cleanup Workers As of June 7, 1,162 people were still employed in spill clean-up, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. That’s down from a peak of 48,200 staff a year ago. William Benson, a Coast Guard spokesman in New Orleans, said officials weren’t available to discuss the details of the clean-up efforts. Compounding the difficulty of calculating how much oil may remain to wash ashore or harm wildlife is a dispute between BP and NOAA over how much escaped from the well during the 87-day spill. The Macondo well began spilling into the Gulf April 20, 2010, after Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank 40 miles (62 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast. After stopping the leak on July 15, 2010, the well was plugged by cement and declared dead by the government Sept. 19. The volume of oil spilled into the Gulf is key to determining the size of penalties that could be levied against the company for violations of U.S. environmental laws. The catastrophe killed 11 rig workers, injured 17, destroyed a $365 million drilling vessel and shut thousands of square miles of fishing grounds for months. Spill Estimate Disputed BP has said the U.S. government’s estimate of 4.9 million barrels overstated the spill. BP said in its 2010 annual report that the spill probably was closer to 4 million barrels, of which 850,000 barrels were captured, burned or skimmed off the water. The 23 percent of the oil NOAA can’t account for may have settled to the bottom of the sea or remain suspended in the water as tar balls that currents may eventually wash ashore, the agency said. The estimate hasn’t been revised, agency spokesman John Ewald said. “We really didn’t mount the comprehensive kinds of sampling studies or mappings required to better assess where the oil was distributed initially and where it eventually ended up,” Robert Weisberg, a professor of Physical Oceanography at the University of South Florida, said yesterday in an interview. Mounting Bills BP spokesman Tom Mueller didn’t respond to questions about the company’s estimate of spillage or damage. Payments for damage claims and cleanup costs reached $6.57 billion as of July 7, according to a BP website. The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, funded with $500 million from BP in payments spread over 10 years, announced $1.5 million of “stop-gap” grants for oil sampling June 30. The Initiative is reviewing another round of proposals for work to be done beginning in September, according to its website. “There will be additional work done,” Weisberg said. “These monies will do more to prepare us for some subsequent environmental assault than shed much light on the Deepwater Horizon event. It’s a little too late.” NOAA has collected 44,800 samples as evidence for a National Resource Damage Assessment, Zink said. The NRDA is an official determination of the damage BP caused, which will be the basis for fines to be levied. The samples include 17,365 from sediment and 12,647 from water, he said. About half have been validated by third parties, he said. ‘Get a Picture’ “We’re starting to get a picture of the damage that was done,” Zink said. “At the end of the day, it’s a legal case.” BP in April agreed to fund $1 billion of restoration projects, and an initial restoration plan may be released this year after consultation with the trustee council for the oil spill, comprised of two federal agencies and representatives of the affected states, Zink said. Seafood harvested in the Gulf of Mexico is safe, NOAA declared in a March 4 statement. A third of the Gulf was closed to fishing at the height of the spill. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net.

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