BP Set to Smother Oil Leak With Mud

BP is carrying out the final tests on its
so-called "top-kill" plan to choke off an oil leak described as the
worst in US history.

The energy giant's chief executive said the company would not make a
final decision until later on Wednesday on whether to go ahead with the
manoeuvre, which has been given a 60 to 70 per cent success rate.

It had been hoped that BP would begin the
procedure, which involves smothering the leak with heavy drilling mud
and cement, earlier in the day.

Such a method has never been tried out 1,500 metres underwater.

Patience is running out and anger has been
growing over the oil giant's inability to stop the oil leak that sprang
more than a month ago after an offshore drilling rig exploded on April
20.

Eleven workers were killed in the blast and by the most conservative
estimate, 26.5 million litres of crude have spilled into the Gulf of
Mexico, fouling Louisiana's marshes and coating birds and other
wildlife.

Leak could worsen

But the top kill procedure could also make the leak worse.

Engineers were doing at least 12 hours of diagnostic tests on
Tuesday, checking five spots on the well's crippled five-storey blowout
preventer to make sure it can withstand the heavy force of the mud.

A weak spot in the device could blow under the pressure, causing a
brand new leak. The mud could also tear a new hole in the leaking well
pipe.

BP has been drafting plans for the top kill for weeks but had to
delay it several times as crews scrambled to assemble the equipment at
the site 80km off the coast.

A flotilla of rigs, barges and other heavy machinery stood ready
there on Tuesday with a stockpile of some 50,000 barrels of the heavy
mud, a manufactured substance that resembles clay.

Tony Hayward, BP's chief
executive, said chances of the top kill succeeding were 60 to 70 per
cent, while Kent Wells, a BP senior vice-president, said the procedure
could be delayed or scuttled if Tuesday's pressure readings were poor.

Wells said it could take anywhere from a few hours to two days to
determine whether the top kill was working.

If it succeeds, BP plans to inject a stream of cement to permanently
seal up the well and may also install a new blowout preventer.

BP has had limited success with a mile-long tube it installed more
than a week ago to siphon up some of the oil, capturing more than 1.9
million litres but also allowing untold amounts to escape into the sea.

Once the results of Tuesday's diagnostic tests are in, BP said, it
will consult with government officials, including scientists with the
Minerals Management Service (MMS), before deciding whether to press on
with the top kill.

Investigation ordered

But the MMS has been accused of having too cosy a relationship with
the very oil companies it is supposed to have oversight of.

Ken Salazar, the US interior secretary, on Tuesday ordered an
investigation into whether the rig involved in the massive oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico was properly monitored by the MMS.

The investigation follows a report citing workers from the MMS -
which is under the interior department - accepting gifts and possibly
allowing oil workers to fill out their own inspection reports.

The
report found it was commonplace before 2007 for MMS employees at a Lake
Charles, Louisiana office to receive gifts including sporting event
tickets and hunting trips from energy companies.

"This deeply disturbing report is further evidence of the cosy
relationship between some elements of MMS and the oil and gas industry,"
Salazar said in a statement.

Salazar, whose interior department has been criticised in recent
weeks for not doing enough to prevent the oil rig explosion, said he had
directed the agency's acting inspector-general, Mary Kendall, to look
into whether MMS employees adequately inspected and enforced standards
on the Deepwater Horizon rig.

He also asked the inspector to determine if the improper behaviour
outlined in the report had continued since he took office at the
department.

The report said a confidential industry source accused some MMS
inspectors of allowing energy company workers to fill out their own
inspection forms for their platforms, but investigators have so far not
been able to determine if any of the files they reviewed were
fraudulent.

Tougher requirements

An inspector-general report released in 2008 found that MMS employees
at another office received gifts, as well as used illegal drugs and had
sex with workers from the oil companies they were supposed to oversee.

In response to the scandal then, Salazar instituted new ethics rules
after he took the helm of the department in 2009.

Salazar and Kendall are set to testify before the House of
Representatives' Natural Resource committee on Wednesday on the oil
spill.

Barack Obama, the US president who on Friday is set to tour the
oil-affected region for a second time, is expected to announce tougher
safety requirements for off-shore oil drilling on Thursday, an
administration official said on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, US officials expanded a fishing ban in the Gulf of
Mexico by more than 20,000 square kilometres amid the spreading oil
slick.

Some 140,000 square kilometres of water - an area slightly smaller
than the size of Greece - are now closed to fishing, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, but added that 77 per cent
of the Gulf remains open.

Source:
Agencies