BP prepares for ‘top kill’ to plug well
BP is siphoning up to 1,000 barrels of oil a day from the undersea leak in the Gulf of Mexico and hopes to double that while workers close in on another attempt to shut down the well for good.
A flexible tube inserted into one section of leaking pipe on Sunday is drawing about 20 percent of the estimated 5,000 barrels per day of oil pouring from the well 40 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. A barrel is 42 gallons.
The well has been leaking since April 20, when a blowout in BP’s Macondo well destroyed the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, killed 11 crew members and triggered the spill threatening the Gulf Coast.
A relief well aimed at intercepting the bottom of the leaking one in order to flood it with cement is about halfway complete, and drilling began Sunday on a second relief well. The well taps a formation more than two miles below the wellhead.
The relief wells will take at least another couple of months, and in the meantime BP likely will try to shut down the well completely late this week using a technique called “top kill,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said at a news conference Monday.
The process involves pumping heavy drilling fluids through two 3-inch lines into the blowout preventer that sits on top of the Macondo wellhead a mile underwater. This would first restrict the flow of oil from the well, which then could be sealed permanently with cement.
The blowout preventer is a massive array of valves and other cutoff devices that BP says failed to provide the intended last line of defense when well pressure surged April 20.
Suttles said the company was able to get pressure readings from the blowout preventer last week that indicate the well pressure is lower than expected and dropping, encouraging officials’ belief that a top kill can work without making the problem worse.
chron.com
5/17/10
