BP to hold online contest for solving oil leak

London, U.K.--Officials at BP are out of ideas. Frustration cannot begin to describe the mood of one of the planet's largest energy company's thousands of worldwide employees. The Gulf of Mexico oil leak that eventually resulted from an April 20 oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana is wreaking havoc on the region.

Oil is beginning to coat beaches, beachgoers, bayous and wildlife in states and countries all along the Gulf Coast. "Countries that I have never even heard of are claiming that oil is washing ashore," said one BP executive. "Turks & Caicos? Where the hell is that? Is it one or two places?"

Advisers to the company have now suggested executives and engineers seek solutions from outside its own walls. As a result, beginning tomorrow, BP will launch an online contest for ideas on how to plug the 5,000 barrels per day leak that is nearly one mile below the Gulf's often placid surface. Entries should be sent to BP's American headquarters in Houston, TX no later than July 30, 2010.

"We wanted to give people enough time to create a cool video or something," said Max Ventnor, 24, a consultant with LastStand Consulting, a damage control consulting firm. "We're hoping this will be a Youtube thing or maybe something with Google, but definitely a Facebook thing. But, I want everybody to remember that even if we come across a great idea early on, we will not announce the winner until July 30. Rest assured that no solution will be implemented until sometime in August."

BP has posted more details concerning the contest on the company's official website.

"Once you come to BP's website, scroll down to the very bottom of the page. On the right hand side will be a giant cartoon 'MD' icon. Click on this to navigate to our marketing department. Scroll to the very bottom of the marketing department's page and on the left will be the icon for 'Sprites Fix a leak Contest,'" explained Douglas Hartnell, a public relations official for BP.

BP appears to be supporting the idea for online solutions.

"Online contests are hip and cool. Both Mountain Dew and Lipton Tea held contests in the last few years for something or other. This is partly the reason why we're partnering with Sprite," said Hartnell. "No, we're not a soft drink company, but we do deal with liquids."

Ideas to stop the flow of oil seem to be slowly surfacing around the world, as two University of Texas Austin engineering students feel they are on to something. "Oh we have an idea that would definitely work. There's no doubt about it. But it will definitely take us right up to the July 30 deadline to create an awesome video presentation that will interface with Facebook. My buddy wants to use video editing software that neither of us are familiar with."

Winners will receive a limited edition Hess collectible toy truck, a $10,000 scholarship to a participating university and, once the cleanup is complete, 0.00025% of all the recycled oil pulled from the Gulf's waters, which may or may not be worthless.