Can the oil captured in the Gulf of Mexico be skimmed and refined?

Yes, much of the recovered oil will eventually be turned into a normal petroleum product. When recovering the oil (and I won't bother as to how they get it out of the water), you have two primary problems:

(1) It's full of crap. Sticks, seaweed, dead animals, Cubans trying to swim to America, you name it. All of this has to be removed before the recovered crude can go any further Some of this is very easy to remove. Just put it through a screen to take out the big stuff. Smaller particles are more difficult, but you still have to get them out, or you're going to foul or destroy your refining stack. Sometimes the cost-benefit ratio is simply not good enough for the oil company, and they'll dispose of it by finding a landfill or processing center somewhere that will take it and essentially just try to make it as benign as possible before throwing it away. But if it *is* filtered of debris, it goes on to...

(2) It's mixed with saltwater and whatever other chemical pollutants happened to already be in the water (in the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, agricultural runoff puts in enormous amounts of phosphates and nitrates). Like the solid debris, you have to get all of this out, or you're going to foul or destroy your refining stack. Cleaning this can be accomplished through centrifuges and chemical "washes" that turn the pollutants into compounds that won't harm the stack. Sometimes, the cost-benefit ratio is again too poor, and the crude is tossed just as happened with the solid debris. If it *is* cleaned, it goes on to...

(3) Refining, as if it had just come out of the ground. At this point, petroleum is petroleum is petroleum, and you can do everything with it that you would have wanted to do with it in the first place.

Depending on the expected profit margin of the oil company, etc., it will be more or less likely for the oil to be recovered and used, or simply disposed of in a proper facility (or an improper, cheap, sneaky facility that just dumps it and doesn't cost much, if the oil guys can get away with it).

First, you would have to have a high enough concentration of oil in the water to warrant extracting the oil from it. Then you would have to have a place to store the oil and water you sucked up. Third, you would have to have a method for removing the oil from the salt water prior to refining it.

Believe it or not, actor Kevin Costner recently invested some $20 million to develop a centrifuge system, where oil-laden sea water is spun around in the equivalent of a giant washing machine tub. The centrifugal force of the spinning drum causes the water to settle to the inner surface of the drum, while the oil sits on the top of the water (it's less dense than the water). The separated oil can then be pumped to a tanker and taken to a refinery.

BP said they want to use this method for removing the oil from the water. But, in a surprising twist, the oil has been dissipating from the surface of the Gulf at a very rapid pace. And, scientists don't know if the oil is dissipating naturally (evaporation, consumed by oil-eating microbes, etc.) or if it's actually collecting below the surface or even on the ocean floor. And, if it is below the surface, how do you find it to collect it and remove it from the water?

eh