

Making Money off of BP Disaster? - feydr

So I'm wondering how legal it is to buy a couple of skimmers and go collect oil yourself down in the affected region? Reading online it seems that you see skimmers doing X bbl/min or Y bbl/hour -- granted there's a lot more to this than that such a simple calculation but at $68/bbl as of today -- sounds like a ton of money is waiting to be made by anyone that wants to go down there and collect it. What are the legalties here? Does BP still own the mineral rights if it's floating halfway across the Gulf? Are there rogue cleanup crews doing this? Everyone sees it as a tragedy but surely there are some of us that see it as an opportunity?
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jing
If it was profitable to harvest / clean up the spill, wouldn't BP be doing it
already? For that matter, wouldn't all of its competitors such as Exxon be
doing the same as well?

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aarongough
Interesting idea! Personally I really like the idea of making money and
helping solve an environmental problem at the same time...

I'm not at all familiar with the low-level process of oil refinement, but
would weathering/chemicals/whatever affect the quality/viability of the oil,
or would it be fine just to sell it on as crude?

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_delirium
Weathering does affect it significantly; oil that's been floating for more
than a day or two is known as "weathered oil", and tends to be a heavier,
clumpy substance that's more tar-like than crude is. It's a lot less valuable
than crude, also, since it's difficult to refine into things like gasoline or
jet fuel, and ends up being used mainly for asphalt instead.

Some companies do recover it, though. I believe oiled sands from beaches are
typically recovered and used industrially also, but again, for fairly low-
value things like asphalt.

