Technology invented by Kevin Costner's brother is to be used in an effort to mop up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
British Petroleum bosses have bought 32 filtration machines manufactured by the movie star's Costner Industries Nevada Corporation.
The deal is a big boost for the Costners - the Dances With Wolves star testified before the House Subcommittee on the Environment about his stainless-steel devices last week (ends11Jun10), and stated, "This is a technology that I believe has the potential to fight catastrophic oil spills... These will serve as the first line of defence in the oil spill clean up and recovery."
He added, "Am I up here hawking my product? I guess... Don't take mine, take somebody else's because I've been to all these oil-response conventions... and all I see are boons and the latest helicopter, but I've never seen one machine that deals with getting the oil out. That's me."
Experts predict the 57-day disaster has already leaked between 20 million to 47 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles recently agreed to test out six of the Costner devices on the oil spill that has devastated America's Gulf Coast region since one of its rigs exploded in April (10).