I was thinking the same thing about some sort of long straw to simply pipe the oil up and out of the water. I have to believe that there is some solid reason why this wouldn’t work, and not that it just hasn’t been thought of. It seems so obvious. Or, could the focus be so much on “plugging” the problem and putting it back the way it was, that an outsiders solution like this just doesn’t come up.
I don’t think the pressure would be the issue, because as someone said its not an empty tube so it’s supported from the inside. I mean there’s jellyfish that live down there and they’re not being crushed by the pressure. Who do we call about this?