One trader said his contact at BP had told him that Macondo crude "is being processed with their [BP] system.... I am not sure if this means whether BP is refining the Macondo crude at their Texas City refinery or their refinery at Whiting, Indiana, or Toledo, Ohio."

A BP spokesman said Tuesday that the plan was still to sell the crude on the spot market. The recovered barrels "are going to refineries, but not necessarily BP refineries," he said in a phone interview. Some traders have said the crude will have a tough time finding homes since it has methanol in it from the recovery process. If sold, it is expected to be priced at a deep discount to other benchmark US crudes.

BP has a total refining capacity of 1.5 million b/d and operates a 475,000 b/d refinery in Texas City, Texas; a 405,000 b/d refinery in Whiting, Indiana; a 125,600 b/d refinery in Toledo, Ohio; a 275,000 b/d refinery in Carson, California; and a 225,000 b/d refinery in Ferndale, Washington.

Two other traders said since they have not seen the Macondo crude being offered in the spot market, they believed that the only thing that BP could do is to refine the crude itself.

Brokers surveyed said they have neither heard nor seen Macondo crude being offered in the marketplace.

--Esa Ramasamy, esa_ramasamy@platts.com

--Beth Evans, beth_evans@platts.com