BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf gusher

NEW ORLEANS – The oil has stopped. For now. After 85 days and up to 184 million gallons, BP finally gained control over one of America's biggest environmental catastrophes Thursday by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring.
Though a temporary fix, the accomplishment was greeted with hope, high expectations — and, in many cases along the beleaguered coastline, disbelief. From one Gulf Coast resident came this: "Hallelujah." And from another: "I got to see it to believe it."
If the cap holds, if the sea floor doesn't crack and if the relief wells being prepared are completed successfully, this could be the beginning of the end for the spill. But that's a lot of ifs, and no one was declaring any sort of victory beyond the moment.
The oil stopped flowing at 3:25 p.m. EDT when the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap was slowly throttled shut. That set off a 48-hour watch period in which — much like the hours immediately after a surgery — the patient was in stable, guarded condition and being watched closely for complications.
"It's a great sight," said BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, who immediately urged caution. The flow, he said, could resume. "It's far from the finish line. ... It's not the time to celebrate."
Nevertheless, one comforting fact stood out: For the first time since an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers April 20 and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet beneath the water's surface, no oil was flowing into the Gulf.
President Barack Obama, who has encouraged, cajoled and outright ordered BP to stop the leak, called Thursday's development "a positive sign." But Obama, whose political standing has taken a hit because of the spill and accusations of government inaction, cautioned that "we're still in the testing phase."
The worst-case scenario would be if the oil forced down into the bedrock ruptured the seafloor irreparably. Leaks deep in the well bore might also be found, which would mean that oil would continue to flow into the Gulf. And there's always the possiblity of another explosion, either from too much pressure or from a previously unknown unstable piece of piping.

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Real BP Gulf oil disaster is still to come

Hurricane season could bring petroleum-filled storms – but what if oil is belched out for another hundred years?


BP is yet to predict the worst-case scenario over the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: Dave Martin/AP
Despite BP fighting valiantly to keep reporters and photographers away from the affected areas, the oil is still erupting out of the sea bed, making the waters of the Gulf of Mexico heavy with petroleum and smearing the coastline with black goo.

So what is going to happen now the hurricane season has arrived? The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration claims there won't be any oil droplets in any hurricane's precipitation. But Jeff Masters, the founder of Weather Underground, from the University of Michigan, disagrees. In fact, he claims that the oil droplets in the hurricane-force winds might actually cause "explosive deepening" of hurricanes in the Gulf.

What will happen when an oil-powered hurricane hits New Orleans and splatters its streets and buildings with crude oil? What will happen when it's not just pelicans and turtles that are plastered in black stuff but people? What about when rice and sugarcane are covered in oil? How will BP keep the reporters and photographers out of it then?

But BP is aware of the possibility of impending disaster a hurricane might bring. On the BP oil leak response website, Mike Utsler, the BP incident commander, based in Houma, tells us: "It's an area that we've put tremendous planning and preparation, from everything in terms of how we would respond to moving people, first and foremost, to safety, but how we would also protect and manage the equipment that's so vital to our operations …"

So that's all right then. BP is going to move everybody out of the way of any carcinogenic, petroleum-filled storms that hit the mainland.

But wait a minute! Mike Utsler isn't talking about the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. He's only talking about the people and equipment involved in the cleanup. "How do we do and manage our people," he says "in such a way that their safety is paramount."

In fact, BP apparently has a weather team working in conjunction with "the area command weather experts, as well as of course the hurricane centre, and our NOAA colleagues" so when a hurricane hits New Orleans and plasters the streets and buildings with crude oil, at least BP will have predicted it.

But what it's not predicting, at the moment, is the worst-case scenario.

BP doesn't actually know how big the oil field they drilled into is. They're drilling into lower tertiary (Paleogene) rock that was laid down at the same time mammals and birds were coming into being: 65-23m years ago. It is one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry, so as you can imagine, they're feeling their way in all this.

Appearing before a House subcommittee in Washington, Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, estimated that there might be a modest 2bn gallons down there, which could mean it could go on belching out oil for another four years. On the other hand, when BP originally announced their discovery of the "giant" find at its Tiber Prospect, experts estimated the size at 42bn gallons. And since they were talking about "recoverable oil" (which could be only 20% of the actual oil in the site) it would mean the site may hold as much as 210bn gallons. In other words, it could go on belching out oil for another hundred years.

Could that be enough time for the oil slick to reach the Mediterranean? Or, heaven forbid, Brighton

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

BP oil spill cap ready for testing

Faulty hose has been replaced and technicians are moving towards finally closing off flow into Gulf of Mexico, say official

Image from a BP video shows oil flowing from a valve before a leak stopped tests on the containment cap in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: AP
BP engineers trying to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico have fixed a leak in the new containment system and are preparing to start critical pressure tests of the cap, the company has said.

Kent Wells, BP's senior vice-president of exploration and production, said the team had replaced the defective hose and would launch the test later today.

"We landed it this morning," Wells said of the replacement hose. "I'm expecting that we'll start up (the test) here later this morning, sometime today."

The cap, installed on Monday, is a crucial step toward a four-vessel oil capture system that is hurricane-ready and can collect up to 80,000 barrels a day. The first of two relief wells is expected to intercept and plug the leak by mid-August.

It represents the best hope yet of stopping the oil from leaking into the sea since the 20 April Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 people.

The company has come under increasing pressure in the United States amid reports that it lobbied the British government for the release of the Lockerbie bomber in what is being called an oil-for-terrorist deal.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, pledged to consider Congressional demands for an investigation into the charges that BP pushed for the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to help it clinch lucrative drilling contracts off the coast of Libya.

Tests of the latest containment attempt began with BP shutting off pipes that were funnelling some of the oil to ships on the surface, meaning the full force of the gusher went up into the cap. Deep-sea robots began slowly closing three openings that let oil pass through. Ultimately the flow of crude will be blocked entirely.

Engineers watched pressure readings to check whether the well was intact. The first two are simple on-off valves. The third – the one with the leaking hose – is closed gradually and takes longer.

Retired coastguard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the government response to the disaster, said a committee of scientists and engineers would monitor the results and assess them every six hours. The test would end after 48 hours to evaluate the findings.

"I was gung-ho for this test and I remain gung-ho for this test," he said.

If the cap works it will enable BP to stop the oil from gushing into the sea, either by holding it back like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channelling some through lines to as many as four collection ships.

The cap was lowered on to the well on Monday. But before BP could test it the government intervened because of concerns about whether the buildup of pressure from the gushing oil could rupture the walls of the well and make the leak worse.

Allen said: "We sat long and hard abo

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

BP faces delay in shutting off new well cap

watches this BP faces delay in shutting off new well cap



BP has suffered yet another setback in its efforts to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, announcing it has been forced to postpone planned tests on turning off valves on a new tighter-fitting cap over the leak.

The gradual shut-off was seen as the first real chance to stop the leak since the start of the environmental disaster almost three months ago.

A White House spokesman had said the operation "represents the best news that we've had in the preceding 85 days".

But Thad Allen, who is overseeing the US response to the crisis, has said that "additional analysis" is needed before the tests can start.

BP has confirmed that analysis is getting under way. "Consequently the well integrity test did not start," it said in a statement.

"It's an incredibly big concern," said Don Van Nieuwenhuise, the director of professional geoscience programmes at the University of Houston. "They need to get a scan of where things are – that way when they do pressure testing they know to look out for ruptures or changes."

The newly installed "capping stack" has a better seal than the last cap placed on the well and aims to stop oil from spewing out of the failed blowout preventer.

Experts said stopping the oil too quickly could blow the cap off or further damage the well.

BP has said the only way to permanently stop the leak is the drilling of two relief wells to intercept the ruptured one. The first is expected to intercept the oil leak by the end of July and plug it with drilling mud and cement by mid-August.

Before the decision to postpone the tests preliminary steps were completed, including mapping the sea bed.

Engineers spent hours on a seismic survey, creating a map of the rock under the sea bed to spot potential dangers like gas pockets. It can be compared with later surveys during and after the test to see if the pressure on the well is causing underground problems.

Experts have said an unstable area around the well could create bigger
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

BP 'installs new sealing cap' on leaking Gulf oil well

We are interesting this BP 'installs new sealing cap' on leaking Gulf oil well

KAMPALA, Uganda - An al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group suspected in twin bombings in Uganda's capital that killed 64 people watching the World Cup final endorsed the attacks on Monday but stopped short of claiming responsibility, as Uganda's president vowed to hunt down those responsible. The blasts came two days after a commander with the...

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