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BP says mud pumped into well is holding back oil
Source: Agencies |
August 4, 2010, Wednesday
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IN a significant step toward stopping the worst offshore oil spill in US history, BP announced today that mud it had forced down a blown-out well was holding back the flow of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.
Workers stopped pumping mud in after about eight hours of their "static kill" procedure and were monitoring the oil well to ensure it remained stable, BP said. They said the well was in "a static condition."
"It's a milestone," BP PLC spokeswoman Sheila Williams said. "It's a step toward the killing of the well."
The next step would be deciding whether to cement the well, Williams said.
The pressure in the well dropped quickly in the first 90 minutes of the procedure yesterday, a sign that everything was going as planned, wellsite leader Bobby Bolton said.
"Pressure is down and appears to be stabilizing," he said last night.
The static kill procedure - also known as bullheading - involved slowly pumping the mud from a ship down lines running to the top of the ruptured well 1.6 kilometers below the surface. BP has said that may be enough by itself to seal the well.
But to call the entire mission a success, crews working on a flotilla of vessels on a desolate patch of water need to seal off the well from two directions.
A 5,490-meter relief well BP has been drilling for the past three months will be used later this month to execute a "bottom kill," in which mud and cement will be injected into the bedrock 4 kilometers below the sea floor to finish the job, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
"There should be no ambiguity about that," Allen said. "I'm the national incident commander, and this is how this will be handled."
A 75-ton cap placed on the well in July has been keeping the oil bottled up inside over the past three weeks, but is considered only a temporary measure. BP and the Coast Guard want to plug up the hole with a column of heavy drilling mud and cement to seal it off more securely.
Before the cap was lowered onto the well, 172 million gallons of crude flowed into the sea, unleashed by the April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 workers.
BP won't know for certain whether the static kill has succeeded until engineers can use the soon-to-be-completed relief well to check their work.
The task is becoming more urgent because peak hurricane season is drawing near, Allen said.
Tropical Storm Colin formed then dissipated far out in the Atlantic yesterday, but early forecasts say it will travel toward the US East Coast rather than the Gulf.
Workers stopped pumping mud in after about eight hours of their "static kill" procedure and were monitoring the oil well to ensure it remained stable, BP said. They said the well was in "a static condition."
"It's a milestone," BP PLC spokeswoman Sheila Williams said. "It's a step toward the killing of the well."
The next step would be deciding whether to cement the well, Williams said.
The pressure in the well dropped quickly in the first 90 minutes of the procedure yesterday, a sign that everything was going as planned, wellsite leader Bobby Bolton said.
"Pressure is down and appears to be stabilizing," he said last night.
The static kill procedure - also known as bullheading - involved slowly pumping the mud from a ship down lines running to the top of the ruptured well 1.6 kilometers below the surface. BP has said that may be enough by itself to seal the well.
But to call the entire mission a success, crews working on a flotilla of vessels on a desolate patch of water need to seal off the well from two directions.
A 5,490-meter relief well BP has been drilling for the past three months will be used later this month to execute a "bottom kill," in which mud and cement will be injected into the bedrock 4 kilometers below the sea floor to finish the job, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
"There should be no ambiguity about that," Allen said. "I'm the national incident commander, and this is how this will be handled."
A 75-ton cap placed on the well in July has been keeping the oil bottled up inside over the past three weeks, but is considered only a temporary measure. BP and the Coast Guard want to plug up the hole with a column of heavy drilling mud and cement to seal it off more securely.
Before the cap was lowered onto the well, 172 million gallons of crude flowed into the sea, unleashed by the April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 workers.
BP won't know for certain whether the static kill has succeeded until engineers can use the soon-to-be-completed relief well to check their work.
The task is becoming more urgent because peak hurricane season is drawing near, Allen said.
Tropical Storm Colin formed then dissipated far out in the Atlantic yesterday, but early forecasts say it will travel toward the US East Coast rather than the Gulf.
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