Top kill fails, BP runs for cover
With BP declaring failure in its latest attempt to plug the uncontrolled gusher feeding the worst oil spill in US history, the company is turning to yet another mix of risky undersea robot maneuvers and longshot odds to keep crude from flowing into the Gulf.
Six weeks after the catastrophe began, oil giant BP is still casting about for at least a temporary fix to the spewing well underneath the Gulf of Mexico that’s fouling beaches, wildlife and marshland. A relief well that’s currently being drilled — which is supposed to be a better long-term solution — won’t be done for at least two months. That would be in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins Tuesday.
President Barack Obama said it is “as enraging as it is heartbreaking” that the most ambitious bid yet for a temporary solution failed. BP said on Saturday that the procedure known as the “top kill” failed after engineers tried for three days to overwhelm the crippled well with heavy drilling mud and junk 5,000 feet underwater.
Now, BP hopes to saw through a pipe leading out from the well and cap it with a funnel-like device using the same remotely guided undersea robots that have failed in other tries to stop the gusher. Mr Robert Dudley, BP’s MD, said on Fox News Sunday that company officials were disappointed that they “failed to wrestle this beast to the ground.”
Engineers will use remotely guided undersea robots to try to lower a cap onto the leak after cutting off part of a busted pipe leading out from the well. The funnel-like device is similar to a huge containment box that failed before when it became clogged with icelike slush. Mr Dudley said officials “learned a lot” from that failure and will pump warm water through the pipes to prevent the ice problems.
The spill is the worst in US history — exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster — and has dumped between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates. The leak began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people. — AP
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