BP (NYSE:BP) Brings Out Heavy Machinery for Oil Cleanup

Heavy machinery is being brought out by BP (NYSE:BP) to dig up the oil that's absorbed into the sand of the beaches of Alabama.

The oil is a deep as six inches deep, possibly more in some cases, and BP received permits to use trackhoes to dig it up and remove the oil.

Another ability of the hoes is to reach into the water and get rid of any tar ball that are underneath the sand close to the beach.

Workers in the region are also be set to remove the booms as there's little or no chance of the disappearing oil being swept onto the beaches and shores any longer.

Booms were used to block the oil from coming moving onto areas with grass and the islands.

Texas Requests $25 Million from BP (NYSE:BP)

Now that Texas has oil starting to wash up on its shores, the state has now asked BP (NYSE:BP) for $25 million in order to clean up the mess, which has initially come in the form of tar balls.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said, “While we do not yet know - and cannot yet calculate - the ultimate damage this ecological and economic disaster will inflict upon the state of Texas, we do know that BP will be held fully financially accountable for the costs incurred by the taxpayers.”

According to Daren Beaudo, a BP spokesman, the tar balls which landed on Texas beaches didn't come directly from the well, citing the Coast Guard, but were probably carried by ships instead.

“It was confirmed that the oil was Deepwater Horizon, but very fresh, not consistent with weathered oil reaching Texas from the well site," Beaudo said. “Suspicion is that it travelled in ships’ ballast or on hulls...."

First BP (NYSE:BP) Tar Balls Show Up on Texas Beaches

For the first time since the BP (NYSE:BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, tar balls have shown up on Texas beaches.

According to Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, the tar balls showed up on Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula on Sunday, and crews have been dispatched to clean it up.

"We've said since day one that if and when we have an impact from Deepwater Horizon, it would be in the form of tarballs," Patterson said. "This shows that our modeling is accurate. Any Texas shores impacted by the Deepwater spill will be cleaned up quickly and BP will be picking up the tab."

So far approximately 35 gallons of oil waste has been cleared from the two Texas beaches.