New Orleans, Aug. 4: BP claimed a key victory on Wednesday in the effort to plug its blown-out well as a government report said much of the spilled oil is gone — though what’s left is still nearly five times the amount that poured from the Exxon Valdez.
More than three months after oil began gushing from the sea floor, officials offered cautious remarks indicating that an end to one of the world’s worst spills was in sight while some Gulf Coast residents expressed scepticism.
BP PLC reached what it called a significant milestone overnight when mud that was forced down the well held back the flow of crude. That means the procedure known as a “static kill” appears to be working, though crews now must decide whether to follow up by pumping cement down the broken wellhead.
Federal officials won’t declare complete victory until they also pump in mud and then cement from the bottom of the well, and that won’t happen for several weeks.
“We’ve pretty much made this well not a threat, but we need to finish this from the bottom,” retired Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the spill response, told WWL-TV in New Orleans.
About one-quarter of the BP oil that spilled out of its broken well remains in the Gulf, according to a report to be released on Wedne-sday by scientists with the Interior Department and National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration.
Nearly three-quarters of the oil — more than 152 million gallons — has been collected at the well by a temporary containment cap, been cleaned up, or naturally deteriorated, evaporated or dissolved.
“It was captured. It was skimmed. It was burned. It was contained. Mother Nature did her part,” the White House energy adviser, Mr Carol Browner, had said.