Matt Simmons is no stranger to controversy. A highly successful banker to the energy sector, he’s taken up contrarian positions on many an industry trend. His contention that Saudi Arabia’s production capacity is heading for a sudden decline captured the zeitgeist perfectly, feeding a growing panic about peak oil. Saudi Aramco dismissed his analysis, but the ruckus did oblige the company to disclose information it had previously guarded jealously. Simmons’ latest broadside is equally breathtaking. In an interview with Oil Daily, Simmons says the Macondo well could leak for decades, turning the Gulf of Mexico into a giant tar ball, and the only solution is to use a nuclear explosion to kill the well. The nuclear option has been ridiculed since it was first advocated in the days after Macondo blew out. Simmons seems to ignore assurances from BP and the US Coast Guard that the well cap is holding, and mounting evidence that the spilled oil is breaking down rapidly in the ocean. A garrulous character, Simmons is always entertaining. But with eccentricities of this order, he is in danger of losing his audience. Peter Kemp, London