BP oil spill clean-up operations

5 May: Shrimp boats were used to collect oil with booms in the waters of Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

19 May: A photo released by the US Coast Guard shows an aerial view of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill being burned
Chief Petty Officer John Kepsime/Handout/EPA

24 May: A contractor operates an oil skimmer as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson tours marshes impacted from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Pass a Loutre Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

4 June: A trawler covered in oil pulls oil covered booms through Barataria Bay just inland from the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

4 June: A clean-up worker picks up blobs of oil in absorbent snare on Queen Bess Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay near the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

6 June: Workers clean the oil washed ashore from the BP Deepwater Horizon spill at the beach of Gulf Shores, southern Alabama Photograph: Zhang Jun/Corbis

6 June: Absorbent pads are used to remove oil that has washed ashore in Grand Isle, Louisiana Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

10 June: Oil washes into a boom stretched across the Perdido Pass area in Orange Beach, Alabama Photograph: Jeff Haller/Corbis

12 June: Workers hired by BP clean oil off the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

15 June: A clean-up worker vacuums oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill along the Northern shores of Barataria Bay in Plaquemines Parish Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

26 June: Boats use absorbent pads to soak up the oil while other workers on the beach try to pick up what washes ashore in Orange Beach, Alabama Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

23 June: An clean-up worker at Pensacola Beach in Florida Photograph: Michael Spooneybarger/AP

23 June: A woman ties up trash bags full of oil and sand at Pensacola Beach, Florida Photograph: Dan Anderson/EPA

28 June: A clean-up worker uses a suction hose to siphon oil from the Port Fourchon beach in Port Fourchon, Louisiana Photograph: Bob Pearson/EPA

28 June: Clean-up workers pull up protective boom and absorbtion materal from the oil-stained beach in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, after oil began to wash ashore early in the afternoon, leaving stained sand and puddles of oil on the beach Photograph: Bob Pearson/EPA

30 June: Staff were evacuated and had to abandon decontamination equipment on the beach when Hurricane Alex caused high winds and lightening in the area around Fourchon Beach, Louisiana Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

30 June: Donavon Bruce, a skimming boat worker, walks past idle boats after they were forced to port because of Hurricane Alex in Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America

1 July: An shovel full of thick oil that washed ashore in Gulfport, Mississippi Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

1 July: A large patch of weathered oil is skimmed by hand near the boat ramp at Ken Combs Pier, in Gulfport, Mississippi Photograph: Amanda Mccoy/AP

1 July: Oil cleanup workers try to remove thick oil that washed ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in Gulfport, Mississippi Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

8 July: The Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico continues to spread with tar balls found in the Rigolets, Louisiana, which access Lake Pontchartrain. This image shows K & K Construction and Disaster Services workers looking for tar balls in the Rigolets. Their specially designed oil skimming barge, Miss Charlotte, can process 400 gallons of water and oil in a 50/50 mixture per minute to produce 12,000 gallons of oil per hour. Photograph: Ann Heisenfelt/EPA

8 July: Workers clean booms stained with oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in Waveland, Mississippi Photograph: Lee Celano/Reuters