Oil spills can be quite hazardous, especially catastrophic ones that dump a lot of oil quickly into the oceans, such those brought on by ship accidents or disasters at oil drilling rigs like Deepwater Horizon in 2010.
To disperse oil slicks, prevent oil from reaching coasts, and enhance oil dispersion in water, significant quantities of chemical dispersants, often in the millions of liters, are frequently sprayed in oil spill disasters.
This should enhance microbial oil breakdown, so the theory goes. This is because specific microbes that may feed on the components of crude oil and convert them into innocuous chemicals can be found in nature. In the search for more environmentally friendly ways to deal with oil spills, biosurfactants may be a superior option to chemical dispersants. Biosurfactants, which are produced by microbes, can increase the bioavailability of oil constituents. This can speed up microbial oil breakdown, which is essential for purification.