SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Researchers say it is unlikely bacteria detected around the runaway BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico have digested significant amounts of oil.
A paper published in Science says the bacteria are more likely to have consumed natural gas spewing from the Macondo well, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
David L. Valentine, a professor of microbial geochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, headed a team that studied water samples taken around the well in June. He said they found that in older samples there was less natural gas -- propane, butane and ethane -- and more hydrocarbon-eating bacteria.
As levels of natural gas went down, the bacteria may have shifted to oil, he said.
"It's hard to imagine these bacteria are capable of taking down all components of oil," he said. "These stories about superbugs taking down all the oil -- it's more complex than that."
Some scientists had suggested bacteria might have consumed most of the oil spilled after the April explosion that killed 11 oil rig workers.
