BP exec: No large concentrations of underwater oil

NEW ORLEANS: BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles continues to insist that no massive underwater oil plumes in ``large concentrations'' have been detected from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Suttles' comments came Wednesday morning on network news shows, a day after the government said water tests confirmed underwater oil plumes from the oil spill, but that concentrations are ``very low.''

Suttles told NBC's ``Today'' show that it ``may be down to how you define what a plume is here.''

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said Tuesday that the tests conducted at three sites by a University of South Florida research vessel confirmed oil as far as 3,300 feet (1,005 meters) below the surface 42 miles (68 kilometers) northeast of the well site.