Thursday, July 15, 2010

Contained!?

BBC’s Breaking News:
BP says it has stopped oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since a well ruptured in April, causing a massive leak.
Seems like BP was finally able to contain the oil pouring out of their Gulf of Mexico thanks to a new cap they placed on top of it:
BP says a new cap has stopped oil from leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April.
BP has been slowly dialing down the flow as part of a test on a new cap. Engineers are now monitoring the pressure to see if the broken well holds.
Engineers got to work after replacing a leaky pipe. Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing in Houston that the leak was found on the side of the towering, 75-ton capping stack and it was fixed by replacing the assembly, called a "choke line."
The work sent the oil giant back to restarting preparations for testing whether the cap can stop the oil without blowing a new leak in the well. If it works, the cap will be a temporary fix until BP can drill into the gusher to plug it for good from underground, where the seal will hold better.
[…]
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the disaster, said at a briefing it's not clear yet whether the cap, which was mounted on the well Monday, will ultimately be used to shut in the oil or to channel it through pipes to collection ships overhead.
"I have a high degree of confidence we can substantially decrease the oil coming into the environment," Allen said.
The cap remains a temporary fix, he said, until one of two relief wells BP is drilling can reach the gusher underground and plug it permanently with heavy drilling mud and cement.
"Make no mistake, the number one goal is to kill the well ... to stop it at the source," he said.
The test will involve closing off all three openings in the cap to the Gulf, in theory stopping the oil leaking into the Gulf. BP will be monitoring pressure under the cap. High pressure is good, because it shows there's only a single leak. Low pressure, below 6,000 pounds per square inch or so, could mean more leaks farther down in the well.
BP expects to keep the oil trapped in the cap for 48 hours before it decides if the approach is working.
The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons are leaking every day.
As of Thursday, the 86th day of the disaster, between 93.5 million and 184.3 million gallons of oil had spewed into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.
Fingers crossed.

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