Once oil reaches the surface of the water, winds and currents are the two main mechanisms that can spread it.
Wind is the most obvious as we have already seen it spread the oil toward the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The wind can easily spread the oil in any direction according to the direction the wind is blowing from and the intensity of the wind. Just after the initial explosion and resulting oil leak, the winds in the spill area were blowing WNW in the 15-30 kts range. Those winds continued toward the west coast of Florida for several days. That spread the oil slick eastward extending it as far east as due south of Pensacola, Fl.
Here in the Bay area, there were widespread reports of an odor in the air. Air quality tests have proved to be inconclusive, but it is not a far stretch to believe the odor came from the incident. That possibility seems even more likely when you consider the smell went way once the winds here then turned SE-S. That would blow the odor back toward the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Recent winds near the spill site have blown SSE-SSW blowing the oil toward the Gulf coast and resulting in some oil washing ashore and with some sea life being affected The winds will remain out of the SSW-SW continuing to blow the oil near shore until Tuesday.
http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=131136&provider=topGreat charts at link.
Here's a video. At around 2:00 it shows the loop current in the Gulf.
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