BP rushes new plan to stem Gulf oil leak

BP's failed attempts to plug Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Washington (AFP) May 30, 2010 - Oil has now been spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged underwater well pipe for over five weeks, evading all attempts by BP to either contain or cap the flow.

Here is a chronology of the British oil giant's efforts to tackle the disastrous spill, now the worst in US history:

-- April 25

BP announces that oil is leaking from a well some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the sea's surface after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig leased by the British firm exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers, and then sank into the ocean two days later, some 40 miles (65 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast.

-- April 26

BP sends four remotely operated robots down to the sea floor to try to activate the blow out preventer, which should have worked to shut off the flow of oil when the Deepwater accident occurred.

The bid fails and BP announces it is building a containment dome to place over the leak and gather up the oil gushing out. It says it is also going to drill a relief well, a process that will take two to three months.

-- May 8

The long-awaited dome, a white box-shaped containment structure weighing 100 tonnes and standing 12 meters high, is lowered into the ocean. The plan is to siphon the oil captured under the dome to a container ship waiting on the surface via a long pipe.

But the same day, the effort is scrapped shortly after it starts as the high pressure and low temperatures at the sea bed cause the oil to form an icy sludge that cannot be sucked up to the surface.

-- May 12

A new smaller container, weighing just 1.6 tonnes and standing 2.4 meters high, is designed. BP says the vessel, dubbed the "top hat," will contain a warming system using hot water and methanol to prevent the formation of the ice crystals that scuppered the first container method.

-- May 13

BP abandons the "top hat," deciding instead to try an insertion tube that will fit inside the leak site and siphon the oil away. With the help of remote-controlled submarines, the 15-centimeter-diameter tube is fitted into the leak site.

-- May 17

BP says it is making "great progress," with the insertion tube siphoning one fifth of the oil gushing in the Gulf. At this stage, official estimates place the amount of oil leaking at 5,000 barrels a day, but scientists are starting to question if much more may in fact be spilling out.

-- May 27

BP says it has a way to cap the well, by using two processes dubbed the "top kill" and the "junk shot." The first involves flooding the leak site with heavy drilling fluid to try to suppress the oil flow, the second calls for pumping debris including bits of tires and knotted rope into the leak. Both aim to plug the spill long enough to allow the well to be sealed with cement.

-- May 29

BP announces the "junk shot/top kill" process has failed. President Barack Obama says the failure is "as enraging as it is heartbreaking."

-- May 30

BP announces its next effort to tackle the growing spill, which involves cutting away some of the damaged wellpipe and placing a new containment dome, similar to the one introduced earlier in the month but fitting directly over the well head.

The company says the dome -- called a "Lower Marine Riser Package Cap" -- will be in place within four to seven days. BP hopes it will avoid the crystallization problems of the earlier container and that the effort will work to hold back most of the oil until one of the relief wells currently being drilled can be completed, most likely sometime in August.

by Staff Writers
Robert, Louisiana (AFP) May 30, 2010
BP engineers scrambled Sunday to implement another high-risk plan to stem the devastating Gulf oil spill now being described as likely the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Hours after the British oil giant acknowledged failure in its "top kill" attempt to plug the underwater well, company officials said it could take a week to implement the next bid -- placing a cap over the leak.

"Right now we are going to a containment operation," BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told CNN's "State of the Union" program of the latest attempt to deal with the ruptured well nearly a mile (1,600 meters) under water.

"Because this is being done at 5,000 feet with robots, we're going to take our time, do it extremely carefully. By the end of the week, we should have this in place," Dudley said.

While the "top kill" would have sealed the well using a combination of heavy drilling fluid and eventually cement, the new effort aims only to contain most of the leak, and might temporarily increase the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, officials said.

The well will only be sealed when BP finishes drilling two relief wells, but those are not expected to be ready until August.

In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spew uncontrolled into the sea each day.

At least 20 million gallons are now estimated to have leaked into the ocean since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20 and sank, killing 11 workers.

President Barack Obama's top environmental advisor, Carol Browner, said on Sunday that the spill was "probably the biggest environmental disaster we've ever faced in this country."

"I think what the American people need to know is that it is possible that we will have oil leaking from this well until August when the relief wells will be finished," she said.

The new bid underway involves using robots to sever a damaged riser pipe carrying oil from the wellhead and placing a containment device called a Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) over the leak.

Oil would then be siphoned from the device up to a container ship at the surface.

But the process could actually increase the amount of oil leaking into the sea, and it is uncertain how much oil would be contained, Browner said on CBS's "Face the Nation.

"When you cut the riser, the kink may be holding some of the oil in and so we could see an increase, experts are saying, of as much as 20 percent," she said, adding the increase could last four to seven days as the cap is prepared.

"Once the cap is on, the question is how snug is that fit? If it's a snug fit then there could be very, very little oil. If they're not able to get a snug fit then there could be more."

That is a nightmare scenario for a region under siege and increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress.

On Friday, Obama visited Louisiana for the second time since the spill began, and he pledged Saturday to do whatever it takes to help those whose livelihoods have been upended by the catastrophe.

"We will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimized by this manmade disaster are made whole," he said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement that at a briefing with Obama Sunday, retired US Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man for the spill, said the federal containment effort had redoubled.

"Officials on the ground have increased efforts to be more responsive to needs identified by local communities," Allen said, according to Gibbs.

Since the spill began, an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of crude have leaked into the Gulf each day.

The disaster has already closed stretches of coastal fishing waters, endangering the seafood industry and tourism, and threatening a catastrophe for Louisiana marshes, home to many rare species.

Government data released Thursday suggested between 18.6 million gallons and 29.5 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf -- far more than the roughly 11 million gallons of crude spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

The spill has been a public relations nightmare for BP, which faced new allegations of negligence Sunday after The New York Times said internal company files showed the firm had serious concerns about the Deepwater rig weeks before the accident.

Congressman Ed Markey, who forced BP to make available a live video feed of the oil leak, said Sunday he had "no confidence whatsoever in BP."

"BP has been making it up as they go along the whole way," he said on "Face the Nation."

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'Top kill' bid to plug oil leak fraught with uncertainty
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) May 29, 2010
BP offered little insight Saturday as to whether its latest effort to plug a disastrous Gulf of Mexico leak would work, as local officials sought million of dollars from the oil giant. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said engineers were still feeding heavy drilling fluid into the leaking well head, hoping to overcome it and ultimately seal it with cement, but that the results would n ... read more

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