Costner device to be deployed in gulf

VENICE, La., June 18 (UPI) -- BP worked on plans Friday to deploy a centrifuge from a company founded by actor Kevin Costner that says the device removes 99 percent of oil from water.

BP and Costner's Ocean Therapy Solutions signed a letter of intent for 32 centrifuges last week following tests to determine if the device could handle variations in the oil mixtures from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The BP-operated Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20, killing 11, and sank two days later, touching off an oil spill that has been growing by as much as 60,000 barrels a day.

"Twenty-first century technology has sat idly on the shelf for 10 years when it could have been deployed as a first, most efficient responder to mitigate the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe," the actor told a U.S. Senate committee last week. He blamed bureaucratic obstacles and general intransigence for keeping his company sidelined.

Costner told WWL, New Orleans, he received a call from BP spokesman Doug Suttles this week firming up deployment plans.

"He told me that it was working against the dispersants, that it was handling the variations of oil mixtures and thickness present in the gulf," Costner said.

Costner has been pushing Congress to mandate mitigation equipment for oil rigs.

Pat Smith, chief operating officer for Ocean Therapy, said the company's plant in Nevada will be able to produce 10 machines a month. The largest units can clean as much as 210,000 gallons of oily water a day, the company said, moving the oil to storage tanks. The company said the device removes 99 percent of the oil from water. Costner has been funding research on the equipment for 15 years.