How Microbes Will Clean Up the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

"The last (and only) defense against the ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is tiny—billions of hydrocarbon-chewing microbes, such as Alcanivorax borkumensis. In fact, the primary motive for using the more than 830,000 gallons of chemical dispersants on the oil slick both above and below the surface of the sea is to break the oil into smaller droplets that bacteria can more easily consume."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-microbes-clean-up-oil-spills