Cap is on but oil leak set to continue
Source: Agencies |
June 5, 2010, Saturday
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A CAP collected some of the oil spewing out of the blown-out Gulf well, but black crude was still leaking into the sea, and officials said yesterday they wouldn't know until later how well the device is working.
It's the latest bid to contain -- not plug -- the oil spill. Even if the cap is successful, it will not collect all the oil coming out. Stopping the leak is still months away.
But officials were optimistic when the inverted funnel-like system, wrapped in hoses and more sophisticated than previous devices, started pumping oil and gas to a tanker.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man for the disaster, said a very rough estimate of current collection would be about 42,000 gallons a day, though he stressed he wasn't certain.
"Progress is being made, but we need to caution against over-optimism," he said.
United States President Barack Obama was due to visit the Louisiana coast yesterday, his second trip in a week and the third since the disaster unfolded following an April 20 oil rig explosion in which 11 workers were killed.
Meanwhile, waves of tar blobs were washing ashore on the white sand of northwestern Florida and nearby Alabama beaches as a slick from the spill moved closer to shore.
Spotters who had been seeing a few tar balls in recent days found a substantially larger number before dawn on the beaches of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and nearby areas, a county emergency official said. The park is a long string of connected barrier islands near Pensacola.
BP's Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said yesterday: "There is flow coming up the pipe. Just now, I don't know the exact rate."
Robots 1,500 meters beneath the Gulf positioned the lid over the main pipe on the leaking well on Thursday night. The robots shot chemical dispersants at the spewing oil.
To put the cap in place, BP had to slice off the pipe with giant shears after a diamond-edged saw became stuck. The jagged cut forced crews to use a looser fitting cap, but Allen did not rule out trying to smooth out the cut with the diamond saw if officials weren't satisfied with the current cap.
Suttles said some of the oil still pouring out came from vents deliberately placed to keep icelike crystals from forming that could block the funnel. BP will try to close those vents and reduce the spill, he said.
The best chance to plug the leak is a pair of relief wells, which are at least two months away. The well has spit out between 80 million liters and 174 million liters of oil since the rig exploded about 80 kilometers from the Louisiana coast. BP was leasing the rig and is responsible to fix and clean up the spill.
Obama expressed anger ahead of his visit. "I am furious at this entire situation because this is an example where somebody didn't think through the consequences of their actions," he said. "This is imperiling an entire way of life and an entire region for potentially years."
It's the latest bid to contain -- not plug -- the oil spill. Even if the cap is successful, it will not collect all the oil coming out. Stopping the leak is still months away.
But officials were optimistic when the inverted funnel-like system, wrapped in hoses and more sophisticated than previous devices, started pumping oil and gas to a tanker.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man for the disaster, said a very rough estimate of current collection would be about 42,000 gallons a day, though he stressed he wasn't certain.
"Progress is being made, but we need to caution against over-optimism," he said.
United States President Barack Obama was due to visit the Louisiana coast yesterday, his second trip in a week and the third since the disaster unfolded following an April 20 oil rig explosion in which 11 workers were killed.
Meanwhile, waves of tar blobs were washing ashore on the white sand of northwestern Florida and nearby Alabama beaches as a slick from the spill moved closer to shore.
Spotters who had been seeing a few tar balls in recent days found a substantially larger number before dawn on the beaches of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and nearby areas, a county emergency official said. The park is a long string of connected barrier islands near Pensacola.
BP's Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said yesterday: "There is flow coming up the pipe. Just now, I don't know the exact rate."
Robots 1,500 meters beneath the Gulf positioned the lid over the main pipe on the leaking well on Thursday night. The robots shot chemical dispersants at the spewing oil.
To put the cap in place, BP had to slice off the pipe with giant shears after a diamond-edged saw became stuck. The jagged cut forced crews to use a looser fitting cap, but Allen did not rule out trying to smooth out the cut with the diamond saw if officials weren't satisfied with the current cap.
Suttles said some of the oil still pouring out came from vents deliberately placed to keep icelike crystals from forming that could block the funnel. BP will try to close those vents and reduce the spill, he said.
The best chance to plug the leak is a pair of relief wells, which are at least two months away. The well has spit out between 80 million liters and 174 million liters of oil since the rig exploded about 80 kilometers from the Louisiana coast. BP was leasing the rig and is responsible to fix and clean up the spill.
Obama expressed anger ahead of his visit. "I am furious at this entire situation because this is an example where somebody didn't think through the consequences of their actions," he said. "This is imperiling an entire way of life and an entire region for potentially years."
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