Skimming of the spilled crude through mechanical equipment has been known as one of the most efficient approaches of recovering floating oil.

There are different methods of cleaning oil spills, depending on the location of the oil spill (water or land). For oil spill on water, you can either booms, skimmers or dispersants which also depends on how large the spill is. for oil spill on land, booms, absorbents, and physical barriers can be used. Containment of the spill is typically the most effective action to reduce the spread of contamination and minimize overall threats to the environment.

Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting evaporation and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines and beaches involved. The different methods that can be used for cleanup oil spilled are:

1-Bioremediation: use of microorganisms or biological agents to break down or remove oil; such as the bacteria Alcanivorax or Methylocella Silvestris.

2-Bioremediation Accelerator: Oleophilic, hydrophobic chemical, containing no bacteria, which chemically and physically bonds to both soluble and insoluble hydrocarbons. The bioremediation accelerator acts as a herding agent in water and on the surface, floating molecules to the surface of the water, including solubles such as phenols and BTEX, forming gel-like agglomerations. etectable levels of hydrocarbons can be obtained in produced water and manageablUnde water columns. By overspraying sheen with bioremediation accelerator, sheen is eliminated within minutes.

3-Controlled burning can effectively reduce the amount of oil in water, if done properly. But it can only be done in low wind, and can cause air pollution. 4- Dispersants can be used to dissipate oil slicks. A dispersant is either a non-surface active polymer or a surface-active substance added to a suspension, usually a colloid, to improve the separation of particles and to prevent settling or clumping. They may rapidly disperse large amounts of certain oil types from the sea surface by transferring it into the water column. They will cause the oil slick to break up and form water-soluble micelles that are rapidly diluted. The oil is then effectively spread throughout a larger volume of water than the surface from where the oil was dispersed. They can also delay the formation of persistent oil-in-water emulsions. However, laboratory experiments showed that dispersants increased toxic hydrocarbon levels in fish by a factor of up to 100 and may kill fish eggs.

5-Watch and wait: in some cases, natural attenuation of oil may be most appropriate, due to the invasive nature of facilitated methods of remediation, particularly in ecologically sensitive areas such as wetlands.

6- Dredging: for oils dispersed with detergents and other oils denser than water.

7-Skimming: Requires calm waters at all times during the process.

8-Solidifying: Solidifiers are composed of tiny, floating, dry ice pellets, and hydrophobic polymers that both adsorb and absorb. They clean up oil spills by changing the physical state of spilled oil from liquid to a solid, semi-solid or a rubber-like material that floats on water. Solidifiers are insoluble in water, therefore the removal of the solidified oil is easy and the oil will not leach out. Solidifiers have been proven to be relatively non-toxic to aquatic and wild life and have been proven to suppress harmful vapors commonly associated with hydrocarbons such as Benzene, Xylene, Methyl Ethyl, Acetone and Naphtha. The reaction time for solidification of oil is controlled by the surface area or size of the polymer or dry pellets as well as the viscosity and thickness of the oil layer.

9-Vacuum and centrifuge: oil can be sucked up along with the water, and then a centrifuge can be used to separate the oil from the water - allowing a tanker to be filled with near pure oil. Usually, the water is returned to the sea, making the process more efficient, but allowing small amounts of oil to go back as well.

10-Beach Raking: coagulated oil that is left on the beach can be picked up by machinery.