BP says it has made progress in quelling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico but the US says the leak rate may have been five times greater than feared.

NZ recorded its first annual trade surplus in nearly eight years in the year to April, Statistics NZ says.

BP has called on Kevin Costner and his giant "vacuum cleaner" to help stave off environmental Armageddon.

Inquiries launched into injuries at petrol stations in the past two and-a-half years reveal less than half involved staff, according to documents obtained by nzherald.co.nz.

There are fears just one severe storm at sea could cripple operations to plug the crippled oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Computer models show the black ooze in the Gulf of Mexico may have already entered a major current flowing towards Florida and the Atlantic Ocean.

Top executives from BP and two other firms involved in the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico came under fire at a US Senate hearing.

Emergency crews are desperately trying to put together a new plan to stem the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico

The most detailed account yet of what led to the deadly explosion on a BP oil rig that has left the US' coast exposed to millions of litres of leaking oil.