HOUSTON – BP fine-tuned its equipment yesterday to deliver the first of two planned decisive actions to permanently plug its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well, which caused the world’s worst accidental oil spill.
The last-minute tests sought to iron out technical glitches before a “static kill” operation expected later yesterday, the next step to definitively subdue the unstable seabed well that was provisionally capped in mid-July.
The full magnitude of the Gulf of Mexico spill, triggered in April by a deadly rig explosion at the BP-owned deepwater well, became apparent on Monday as government scientists released revised figures showing almost five million barrels of oil leaked before the well was temporarily capped on July 15th.
This made it the world’s largest accidental release of oil, surpassing the 1979 Ixtoc well blowout in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche that gushed almost three million barrels.
Retired coast guard Adm Thad Allen, who oversees the US oil-spill response, said engineers had succeeded in halting a hydraulic leak found on Monday in the cap that could have hindered the operation that will pump drilling mud, and possibly later cement, into the top of the well.
An injection test was planned to confirm whether this “static kill” could go ahead. “We should be into the static kill by this afternoon,” Adm Allen said at a briefing.
The kill operation would take 33-61 hours to complete.
Adm Allen said engineers were moving cautiously so as not to damage the fractured well and cause fresh leaks. “We don’t know the exact condition of the well,” he said. The static kill is the first step of a two-pronged strategy that will aim to finally seal the Macondo deposit later in August, with more mud and cement injected through relief wells that will deliver a definitive “bottom kill”. “This thing won’t be truly sealed until those relief wells are done,” Adm Allen said.
The Macondo spill, already the worst in US history, has unleashed an environmental and economic catastrophe on the US Gulf Coast, disrupting the livelihoods of fishermen and tourism operators and triggering a barrage of damages lawsuits against BP. The company has said it will pay all legitimate claims and clean up fouled beaches and marshes.
BP had estimated the well had leaked some four million barrels of oil and that it would be fined $1,100 (€830) per barrel under the Clean Water Act. The company faces fines of $4,300 per barrel if gross negligence is proven, but said it saw no need to change its provision as a result of the new estimate. – (Reuters)