NOAA: Surface oil no longer a threat to Fla.

Surface oil no longer poses a threat to Florida coastlines, federal officials said Friday, but submerged oil could continue to wash onto Pensacola beaches for some time.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Friday that only scattered patches of light oil sheen remain on the surface of the Gulf near the Mississippi River Delta.

The flow of oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well has been stopped since the well was temporarily capped July 15. If the well remains capped, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said Northwest Florida beaches are past the worst of the oil contamination.

"Northwest Florida has seen the worst. It will taper off and diminish considerably, but we will continue to see it at some level for some time," Lubchenco said.

The latest analysis is based on aerial and satellite observations of surface oil and by monitoring the loop current.

"For southern Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Eastern Seaboard, the coast remains clear," Lubchenco said. "With the flow stopped and the loop current a considerable distance away, the light sheen remaining on the Gulf's surface will continue to biodegrade and disperse but will not travel far."

Not all of the oil in the Gulf can be seen from above, and Lubchenco said submerged oil could continue to wash ashore sporadically near Pensacola.

"The oil that is just below the surface is harder to see remotely. It clearly is there, both in the form of tar balls as well as emulsified oil. We certainly expect some oil to continue to come ashore, but in more limited quantities, in the northern Gulf," Lubchenco said.

The analysis found that large loop current eddy has pinched off and detached from the main current, which cuts off the oil's path to southern Florida and East Coast beaches.

"Until the loop current fully reforms, there is no clear way for oil to be transported to southern Florida or beyond," according to the NOAA release.

The current is not expected to reform for several months. If the well remains capped, almost all of the surface oil will have dissipated by that time, officials said.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco cautioned that scientists will continue studying the potential effects of the subsurface crude.

"Diluted and out of sight does not mean benign," she said. "But in those concentrations, there will be minimal impact to the big things that are out in the ocean: big fish, big marine mammals, birds."

She said scientists still don't know the oil's environmental effect underwater.