NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Tests on a supertanker adapted to skim large quantities of oily water from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico are inconclusive because of high seas, ship owner TMT Shipping Offshore said on Monday.

Tests on the so-called “super skimmer” conducted just north of the blown out BP Plc well were supposed to be completed on Monday but have been extended because of the weather, said spokesman Bob Grantham.

LONDON/NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Shareholders in BP balked Monday at reports it would seek a strategic investor to ward off takeover bids, as the clean-up costs of its massive U.S. oil spill topped $3 billion.

As containment efforts continued in the devastated Gulf of Mexico, where a ruptured well has been spewing crude since April 20, tests on a supertanker adapted to skim large quantities of oily water from the surface were inconclusive because of high seas, ship owner TMT Shipping Offshore said.

NEW ORLEANS, July 5 (Reuters) – Tests on a supertanker
adapted to skim large quantities of oily water from the surface
of the Gulf of Mexico are inconclusive because of high seas,
ship owner TMT Shipping Offshore said on Monday.

Tests on the so-called ‘super skimmer’ conducted just north
of the blown out BP Plc well (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) were supposed to be
completed on Monday but have been extended because of the
weather, said spokesman Bob Grantham.

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) – Oil sloshing onto Mississippi’s beaches is providing a stern test of state Governor Haley Barbour’s hard-won reputation for crisis management.

Barbour, 62, is viewed as a powerhouse within the Republican party and a potential candidate for president in 2012. He cannot run for governor again when his term ends, but he deflects questions about a presidential bid.

, (Reuters) – Oil sloshing onto Mississippi’s beaches is providing a stern test of state Governor Haley Barbour’s hard-won reputation for crisis management.

Barbour, 62, is viewed as a powerhouse within the Republican party and a potential candidate for president in 2012. He cannot run for governor again when his term ends, but he deflects questions about a presidential bid.

NEW ORLEANS, July 3 (Reuters) – A supertanker adapted to
scoop up oil from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico began
tests on Saturday amid a report that some major investors
expect the energy giant to replace its top executives.

The vessel named “A Whale” and dubbed a “super skimmer” is
operating just north of the blown out well as part of a two-day
test watched by the U.S. Coastguard, said Bob Grantham,
spokesman for TMT Shipping Offshore, which owns the ship.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – BP’s oil spill clean-up efforts in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were returning to normal on Saturday, amid a report that some major investors expected the British energy giant to replace its top executives.

BP said its oil-capture systems at its leaking well collected or burned off 25,290 barrels of oil during operations on Friday, as it ramped up spill containment efforts that had been disrupted by Hurricane Alex.

BOOTHVILLE, Louisiana, July 1 (Reuters) – A supertanker
converted to operate as a giant oil skimmer will be tested on
Saturday to see if it is ready for use in the Gulf of Mexico
oil spill cleanup.

The 1,100-foot (335 meter)-long ore and oil carrier, owned
by TMT shipping of Taiwan and dubbed the “A Whale,” can collect
500,000 barrels (21 million gallons) per day of contaminated
water, said Chris Coulon, a spokeswoman for the joint incident
command.

ATLANTA, June 26 (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, formed on Saturday near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with the potential to become a hurricane and disrupt efforts to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

ATLANTA (Reuters) – A $20 billion fund set up by energy giant BP Plc after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be used only to compensate victims, lawyers involved in litigation over the disaster said on Thursday.

The lawyers said they were shocked that the fund was also for purposes other than compensating people suffering economic losses from the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Those purposes could include massive clean-up costs and litigation.