BP: "Cap Closed, No More Oil Going Into Gulf"

RoxSqaud · Jul 15, 2010

NEW ORLEANS – A tightly fitted cap was successfully keeping oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in three months, BP said Thursday. The victory — long awaited by weary residents along the coast — is the most significant milestone yet in BP's effort to control one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed down the amount of crude escaping through the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap.

"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.

The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.

Now begins a waiting period to see if the cap can hold the oil without blowing a new leak in the well. Engineers will monitor pressure readings incrementally for up to 48 hours before reopening the cap while they decide what to do.

Though not a permanent fix, the solution has been the only one that has worked to stem the flow of oil since April. BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well in hopes of plugging it for good by mid-August.

BP has struggled to contain the spill and had so far been successful only in reducing the flow, not stopping it. The company removed an old, leaky cap and installed the new one Monday.

Between 93.5 million and 184.3 million have already spilled into the Gulf, according to federal estimates.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

The Cat · Jul 15, 2010

Way too early to celebrate on this one. Everyone knew they'd be able to close the well with a cap, but the question is whether sealing the top (and keeping the oil in) will force another explosion/leak elsewhere in the well. That's what they're doing these tests of pressure readings for.

If in a day or two the pressure readings are acceptable and there's no second explosion, then it's time to celebrate.

KingCheetah · Jul 15, 2010

I'll believe it when I see it.

B-Bob · Jul 15, 2010

See, all they needed was new corporate leadership.

justtxyank · Jul 15, 2010

The small people are saved!

thelasik · Jul 15, 2010

I should've doubled up on their stock when it went below 30.

DieHard Rocket · Jul 15, 2010

Excited? What's to be excited over? You just filled the ocean with oil for three months and finally stopped it. You shouldn't be excited, you should be relieved.

That's like being excited after a volcano erupts and the lava finally stops spewing.

Bandwagoner · Jul 15, 2010

KingCheetah said:

I'll believe it when I see it.
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Mulder · Jul 15, 2010

DieHard Rocket said:

Excited? What's to be excited over? You just filled the ocean with oil for three months and finally stopped it. You shouldn't be excited, you should be relieved.

That's like being excited after a volcano erupts and the lava finally stops spewing.
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Agreed. I wonder how long it will take before this is completely off the MSM radar. I have the "under" on whether that happens before Lindsey goes to jail.

MoonDogg · Jul 15, 2010

This is welcome news, but BP still sucks.

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thadeus · Jul 15, 2010

Great, if this works we can get on to the process of suing BP into oblivion for criminal negligence.

Dairy Ashford · Jul 16, 2010

KingCheetah said:

I'll believe it when I see it.
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J.R. · Jul 16, 2010

NEW ORLEANS – In a nail-biting day across the Gulf Coast, engineers huddled over puzzling pressure readings from the bottom of the sea Friday to determine if BP's capped oil well was holding tight.

Halfway through a critical 48-hour window, the signs were promising but far from conclusive.

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said on an evening conference call that engineers had found no indication that the well has started leaking underground.

"No news is good news, I guess that's how I'd say it," Wells said.

Engineers are keeping watch over the well for a two-day period in a scientific, round-the-clock vigil to see if the well's temporary cap is strong enough to hold back the oil, or if there are leaks either in the well itself or the sea floor. One mysterious development was that the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.

Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running lower three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further study but remained confident.

"This is generally good news," he said. But he cautioned, "We need to be careful not to do any harm or create a situation that cannot be reversed."

He said the testing would go on into the night, at which point BP may decide whether to reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill into the sea again.

Throughout the day, no one was declaring victory — or failure. President Barack Obama cautioned the public "not to get too far ahead of ourselves," warning of the danger of new leaks "that could be even more catastrophic."

Even if the cap passes the test, more uncertainties lie ahead: Where will the oil already spilled go? How long will it take to clean up the coast? What will happen to the region's fishermen? And will life on the Gulf Coast ever be the same again?

"I'm happy the well is shut off, that there's a light at the end of the tunnel," said Tony Kennon, mayor of hard-hit Orange Beach, Ala. But "I'm watching people moving away, people losing their jobs, everything they've got. How can I be that happy when that's happening to my neighbor?"

On Thursday, BP closed the vents on the new, tight-fitting cap and finally stopped crude from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since the April 20 oil-rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet down.

With the cap working like a giant cork to keep the oil inside the well, scientists kept watch on screens at sea and at BP's Houston headquarters, in case the buildup of pressure underground caused new leaks in the well pipe and in the surrounding bedrock that could make the disaster even worse.

Pressure readings after 24 hours were about 6,700 pounds per square inch and rising slowly, Allen said, below the 7,500 psi that would clearly show the well was not leaking. He said pressure continued to rise between 2 and 10 psi per hour. A low pressure reading, or a falling one, could mean the oil is escaping.

But Allen he said a seismic probe of the surrounding sea floor found no sign of a leak in the ground.

Benton F. Baugh, president of Radoil Inc. in Houston and a National Academy of Engineering member who specializes in underwater oil operations, warned that the pressure readings could mean that an underground blowout could occur. He said the oil coming up the well may be leaking out underground and entering a geological pocket that might not be able to hold it.

But Roger N. Anderson, a professor of marine geology and geophysics at Columbia University, said the oil pressure might be rising slowly not because of a leak, but because of some kind of blockage in the well.

"If it's rising slowly, that means the pipe's integrity's still there. It's just getting around obstacles," he said. He added that "any increase in pressure is good, not bad."

The cap is designed to prevent oil from spilling into the Gulf, either by keeping it bottled up in the well, or by capturing it and piping it to ships on the surface. It is not yet clear which way the cap will be used if it passes the pressure test.

Either way, the cap is a temporary measure until a relief well can be completed and mud and cement can be pumped into the broken well deep underground to seal it more securely than the cap. The first of the two relief wells being drilled could be done by late July or August.

In a positive sign, work on the relief wells resumed Friday. The project had been suspended earlier this week for fear that the capping of the well could interfere with it.

There was no end in sight to the cleanup in the water and on shore. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons have spilled into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100716/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

KingCheetah · Jul 17, 2010

CaseyH said:

vid
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Your vid isn't working.

TECH · Jul 17, 2010

KingCheetah said:

Your vid isn't working.
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Try this one.

http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=9034366&contentId=7063636

ToyCen428 · Jul 19, 2010

(CNN) -- Tests relating to the recently recapped oil well in the Gulf of Mexico have detected a "seep a distance from the well," Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said in a letter to a BP official. Allen, in a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley, directs BP to provide a written procedure for restarting flow from the well if oil seepage near the wellhead is confirmed.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/18/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html?video=true

This is bad news because it would mean that the well bore is damaged below the seafloor, which means the only way to stop it from leaking will be the completion of the relief well and plugging the bore with mud and cement from below.

Isn't it a little funny that we knew and they told us that the pipe was damaged, we'd seen the background screens in CNN, feeds and other sources showing huge amounts of plumes coming outta the seafloor a month back, yet magically all this is fixed and they can just cap the well off? What function did that relief well have if BP has mentioned nothing about concreting? It seems they've simply stuck a straw in it and closed the top of the main well off, or attempted to. This stinks as much as the slick reports 2 weeks before deepwater went down. Usual practice for these guys is to make deepwater the 'look at me' event while something else is going on...

Couldn't waste all this money and not get any oil eh?

Lady_Di · Jul 19, 2010

This is pretty uneasy...I saw something about bubbles leaking from the cap this morning. They were discussing about the possibility of methane gas. I just hope they do the right decision. BP continues to say it is safe to leave the cap on but why would we trust them?

I am so scared of an explosion that can cause irreversible damage to the seafloor.

rocketsjudoka · Jul 19, 2010

ToyCen428 said:

Couldn't waste all this money and not get any oil eh?
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I highly doubt that BP was doing this to try to get more oil. In BP's defense all along they have said that the only way to really stop the leak was to bottom kill it with relief wells. Everything else has just been attempts to slow down the problem while the relief wells are being drilled.

MoonDogg · Jul 19, 2010

ToyCen428 · Jul 19, 2010

rocketsjudoka said:

I highly doubt that BP was doing this to try to get more oil. In BP's defense all along they have said that the only way to really stop the leak was to bottom kill it with relief wells. Everything else has just been attempts to slow down the problem while the relief wells are being drilled.
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if this happened in the persian gulf you best believe this oil leakage/cleanup would've been complete alot sooner then this one.

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BP: "Cap Closed, No More Oil Going Into Gulf"

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