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BP Tests Oil Well Cap, but Says Success Is Not Assured
Oil was still gushing from the well, as expected, as engineers prepared to gradually choke off the flow by closing three vents on a new device lowered on to the blown-out well on Monday.
pressure gauge used to test the cap installed by BP over its leaking oil well. Photograph: AP Once the vents are closed, pressure readings will indicate whether the oil can be successfully shut in by the cap, pending a permanent "kill" operation that could be under way by the end of this month using a relief well that has been drilled close by.
If tests show that the flow is too powerful to hold back – or if the pressure falls below a level, suggesting a secondary leak – BP will reopen the well and allow the oil to gush again while the company brings a containment system online to divert it on to collection ships. It could be another 48 hours before the tests are complete.
Kent Wells, a senior vice-president at BP, said that although the installation of the cap had gone "incredibly well", it was "just one step in a multistep process" and held no guarantee of success.
"It's not simple stuff and what we don't want to do is speculate around it. We just need to see what the data tells us and make the right decisions going forward," he said.
A BP statement added: "The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured."
Tens of thousands of people living in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida have suffered financially from the spill, which began with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig on 20 April that killed 11 workers.
Even if the oil can be temporarily shut in, or contained using surface ships, the only permanent end to the spill is through a relief well that is due to connect with the leaking well by the end of this month.
Once the two intersect, 2.5 miles below the seabed, heavy fluids will be poured via the relief well to "kill" the oil reservoir and seal it with cement. BP has said that this could take up to 14 days, but it aims to have the damaged well closed by 13 August.
Crude oil has been gushing out of the well, named the Macondo Prospect, at between 35,000 barrels (1.5m gallons) and 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) a day, according to US government estimates, though doubts remain as to the accuracy of those figure.
If the tests show that the oil cannot be shut in safely, the new containment system can handle up to 80,000 barrels (3.4m gallons) a day, but will not reach that capacity until the end of this month. The federal incident commander, Admiral Thad Allen, said that the clean-up efforts would last well into the autumn.
US energy secretary, Steven Chu, joined scientists and technic experts overseeing the cap-testing operation from BP's headquarters in Houston, Texas
26 Comments so far
Show AllDon't forget, Steven Chu has a Nobel Prize.
So does Oblahma....I think they are found in crackerjack boxes...
If BP does manage to shut off the oil flow with the latest cap, can we expect its CEO to join hands with the above three in taking a "victory tour" anytime soon?
Everyone just needs to chill and smoke a blunt. The world is too hectic. Why can't we all just chill and smoke some weed together.
"Admiral Thad Allen, said that the clean-up efforts would last well into the autumn."
Who is he fooling? Clean up in Alaska still isn't complete 20 years after Exxon Valdez spillT The Gulf will NEVER be the same.
A BP statement added: "The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured."
Therefore, a moritorium on deep wells just makes sense, until these systems HAVE been tested and proven effective.
It's been fun watching these guys try to stick their square heads up their round a-holes for the last three months. Yes-in-dee-dee.
Since this newest "fix" is made up of readily available parts why did they not attempt to use it earlier? Why did they mess around with all their other methods that didn't work at all? It would be interesting to figure out what benefit is/was to be had from failing to stop the gusher.
One thing you can expect when Europeans steal your land is that eventually the news of their world will just worse and worse.
You can always bet on the news of their world will do nothing but get worse.
I have a fantastic winning streak going betting on the news of the European's world will do nothing but get worse. How much worse the news of their world will get in my lifetime I don't know?
I lived in Vegas many times. Vegas is wild. People will bet on anything. The one thing I won't bet on is your world getting any better anytime soon. But you have your stolen Indian land, and your cash register world so I don't know why you aren't happy?
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
Love your comments about the worthlessness of European culture, comments you express on this medium which owes so much to European culture: the understanding of the world so painfully derived from experiment, observation, dead ends, retesting, and so on. The telephone, cars, penicillin: Do you turn your back on those things, too? Or does subsistence farming and hunting fill your life so completely you have abandoned them?
Stolen Indian land? Who gave Indians the title? Nobody owns the land, not Indians, not whites. Why not join the human species and participate in solutions to problems rather than cherishing a vision of the past that never existed as you imagine it? And this forgiveness thing you always post--that is a joke. The fact that you forgive tells everyone that you have had a crime committed against you. If that crime was committed against you personally, then your statement is a true expression of your feelings. But if you are giving forgiveness for crimes committed against Indian peoples, then under whose authority do you accept the forgiveness for all of those wrongs? There were crimes committed against innocent whites in the early days, too: the scalpings of the innocent, the burning of homes. These things have been written down in books and in the letters and diaries of those who experienced the suffering. Who bestows forgiveness for those crimes? Not me. Not anyone. It is time to honor the past but leave it behind if the memories there only serve to divide us.
When I attended European style schools long ago around the grade they call the 7th their style of teachers started talking more about something they called, The Future.
I would just chuckle because I knew they did not know The Future.
In the years they call High School their type of teacher who taught your form of Government liked talking to me because I would tell him what your Nation was going to turn into down the road of time.
Tribes had their own lands but individual members of Tribes did not own the land like Europeans own land. They didn't not have titles to the land, nor any taxes upon the land. They primarily hunted, fished, trapped, grew and gathered food. Not all Tribes were alike by any means. There were problems within Tribes and problems from time to time with other Tribes. Tribes had their peacemakers. Their ways of making peace with other Tribes.
Do you think your pay your bills and die world can go back to that way of living upon the earth? What about everyone else upon the earth? There are other people all over Creator's planet in other Nations. Your certainly not the only people on Creator's earth?
What about the people who really run this world. Do you think they are interested in the least about anything you have to say about anything? Write you Elected Representatives if you think they are actually interested in anything you have to say.
That is the process of your Nation. Every so often your Nation holds elections where you get to vote who your Elected Representatives will be for a certain period of time. So you have your choice of who you desire to elect to Represent you.
If you do not like their policies you can write them or protest their policies under whatever legal guidelines they have set up in a legal manner under the law.
If you are unhappy with them then that is your problem, not mine.
Makes absolutely no difference to me who your Nation Elects. I am completely fine with any choices the people of your Nation make or even if they don't vote.
I am only passing through your world so there isn't any division within me at all about any choices you make for your own personal life about anything.
There isn't any division in me at all in any choices of those you Elect to Represent you as the leadership of your Nation. What ever Obama has done in his time in office is what he has done in his time in office as your Nation's leader. What any of your Leaders of the Past did in their time in office is what they did in their time in office.
Whether you Nation re-elects Obama or a Republican that is fine with me. If people of your Nation chose to write them letters or protest them because people of your Nation do no like their policies then that is the right of the people of your Nation under your Nation's laws.
I have the right not to write them or protest them either one. I have the right to let them do the job they were Elected to do by the people of your Nation without myself interfering with them at all.
Obama was elected to do his job as your Nation's leader. If your upset with him that is your problem, not mine.
I live in peace with you Nation. By the time his term in office is finished I will merely be 4 or 8 years older from the time he took his job as the Leader of your Nation.
From the time he took Office what has happened has happened. Within that time frame the oil began gushing out of the Gulf. The Hopi have a prophecy of the waters of the earth turning black. So is that the beginning of that prophecy or not?
Only Creator and those in Creator's dimension know exactly what damage to Creator's earth that will cause because the oil began gushing out of the Gulf.
I am only passing through you world. Creator already knows exactly what is going to happen upon Creator's earth.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
Since this BP/gov't made disaster is taking place a mile deep in the sea, most ADD, TV and iPhone-addicted Americans have already forgotten it. It's just soooo April-May 2010! My guess is only the people living at or near the Gulf even care enough to still be depressed about it. And then only the smallest minority of them are really angry enough to want to DO SOMETHING, like find a way to seriously kick BP's greedy ass once and for all.
But wait! The People can't do anything about anygoddamnthing, so what am I saying? We have to wait for OBAMA to do something, and all we can do to get him to fucking do something is "hold his feet to the fire." He won't do ANYTHING unless he's forced to. And the only agencies that are allowed to force him to do anything are giant corporate interests thru their $10,000/hr. lobbyists.
We The People don't in fact exist, except in our own minds. There is no "The People" because this gov't responds only to monied interests and our money is sucked into the tax pool which is then doled out to corporations that are destroying us: BP, Wall Street mafias, insurance and pharma mafias. This is what the death of democracy looks like.
Here's an utterly heartbreaking photo/video documentary of the results of BP's criminal negligence thus far:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25926.htm#idc-cover
'heartbreaking' just doesn't cover my feelings..............thanks for the link.
why isn't this video/photos all over the media??????
This is the saddest thing I have seen in my life, with one exception I won't mention here. There is a sickness in America, a great sickness.
I believe it is less than a 50/50 chance that all
BP videos have been live and in real time.
I have seen more evidence that all video is fake
than live.
If the effect of this shock and awe BP disaster is adequately managed by the corporate media, it will distract from the billions spent on Empire's wars, as well as, justify Obomba's small, nuclear power plant program: That's a twofer for disaster capitalism ! Probably, the inept,Halliburton Corp's hit-squad screwed up a small, designer disaster that merely got out of control. Whatever became of the mud-team from Halliburton that performed the cementing-seal that lead to the explosion and total loss of the Event Horizon, I mean the Deepwater Horizon ? Did they die of a CEO Ken Lay heart attack or some other "natural" cause ? ?
Well, at least BP can say it is all over now but
the cleanup.................................
they have been wanting to do this...they have lied, along
with our government from day one about this disaster.
So, would BP be willing to let an independent org. use
their own ROV and camera to go down 5000ft to the BOP
and see if BP is telling us the truth?? Such as Greenpeace.
No, they will not....so why does anyone believe the video
they just saw??????????????????????????????????????????
Why has everyone's concern been on the beaches???
The beaches are the least thing that could have been
contaminated by the oil, and the easiest place to clean up
the oil.
I wish they would have diverted all the oil onto to beaches
and let every bit of it surface. Put boom traps all the
way to the beaches.
Who believes BP? Who Believes their video??
But they can say it is all over now.....saves them billions
...saves them billions
It’s interesting to note that the fine BP is facing is somewhere around $4000 per barrel. That puts the total fine at over $500billion... Yet BP’s share price is climbing. Looks like those in the know understand that the fine will amount to didly squat.
Yes, if the pressure is either too high or too low there will be hell to pay. I worry about low pressure indicating secondary leaks, indicating in turn that the casing which is supposed to contain the oil flow is blown apart. If that's true I don't know if the relief wells, even if they hit their target can stop the leak. Meanwhile all those Southern governors,(how I hate the South)want the deep water drilling to continue. Let's let them have their way only let's not offer any help to them when the next deep water well blows out. I want them to suffer. Seeing that we have abandoned them to the consequences of their own stupidity I want them and all the ignorant crackers they represent to peacefully leave the Union in disgrace. I don't think we can save these morons from themselves.