At least some of the oil flowing from the BP well on the Gulf of Mexico seabed is now being captured. But many believe that better, faster solutions could have been found further outside of BP.

BP insists it has the ‘best and brightest’ working on the problem – and in fact, only 60 per cent of the 600 engineers tackling the leak work for BP; the remainder are from other oil companies, contractors, and government, plus a few academics. The company’s assurances were little comfort, however, for many onlookers worried that the company was not soliciting enough outside expertise. Some were angry that BP itself was trusted to solve the problem; others couldn’t see how modern technology could keep failing to fix it quickly.

There has been a deluge of criticisms of BP’s approach and suggestions for how it should be better tackled over the internet since the leak was first reported.