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