Monday - July 12, 2010

Capped at last?

Breaking - Fox News has been reporting for the past hour that BP has their latest cap on the broken oil pipe, and that it appears to have contained the leak. BP has not yet released a statement. The latest cap has not yet been pressure tested as a stop valve; right now it is merely letting the oil flow to a takeup pipe. But nothing seems to be leaking, and that’s the important story.

BP Lowers New Cap on Busted Well in Latest Attempt to Stop Gushing Oil

NEW ORLEANS—A new cap has been installed on the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, offering hope of containing the gusher for the first time since BP’s deepwater rig exploded in April.

BP officials said Monday evening the cap was mounted on the well after two days of preparing the site and a day of slowly lowering it into place.

The company plans to run tests starting Tuesday to see if the cap can withstand pressure.

The old cap, removed Saturday, did not have a tight fit and allowed crude to escape.

The new cap will enable BP to capture all the oil and funnel it up to ships.

BP is drilling two relief wells so it can pump mud and cement into the leaking well for a permanent fix.

Not mentioned here, but heard earlier this afternoon, is that BP says the relief well that they are drilling is less than 50 feet away from intersecting the broken well pipe, a good distance underneath the sea floor. Plans are to inject several hundred feet of concrete down the old bore hole from the new line, sealing the broken well permanently.

Personally, I don’t understand why they don’t just pump the well dry ASAP, and then fill it with seawater or whatever they do with wells once they go dry.

Oh, and in “celebration” perhaps of this, Oblamblam and his thugs issued another drilling moratorium today, reworded they hope so that it passes court muster. They will do whatever is necessary to bring this country to it’s knees. Thanks for jack shit, 52ers.

Obama Administration Issues New Moratorium on Offshore Oil Drilling

The Obama administration issued a new moratorium Monday on deep-water offshore drilling that is no longer based on water depth and stresses new evidence of safety problems, hoping the revised ban will pass muster with the courts after the initial one was rejected.

“More than 80 days into the BP oil spill, a pause on deep-water drilling is essential and appropriate to protect communities, coasts, and wildlife from the risks that deep-water drilling currently pose,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in announcing the new moratorium. “I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry’s inability in the deep-water to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely.”

The new moratorium was panned by industry groups and supported by environmentalists. [ yeah, well nooooo shit ]

Last week, a federal appeals court rejected the government’s effort to restore its initial offshore deep-water drilling moratorium, which was issued after the catastrophic Gulf oil spill in April. The moratorium was blocked first last month by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman.

This looks like another loser from Team Loser. Especially if this industry, has now shown that it does have the ability to contain a catastrophic blowout like this one. Fargin bastige.

UPDATE: CNN has a statement from BP, and video of the new cap going on.

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN)—BP says it has placed a new containment cap on its crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico that’s been gushing oil since an explosion and fire April 20.

The company hopes the new cap will be able to completely contain the leaking oil, but tests are still needed to determine its effectiveness.

Video supplied by BP showed robotic arms gingerly lowering the new 18-foot, 150,000-pound cap over the well, with little oil appearing to escape.

If the new cap does not completely contain oil from the crippled well, some may have to be brought to the surface to waiting containment ships. But under a worst-case scenario, there could be new damage to blowout preventer.

The “well integrity” tests are due to begin Tuesday morning, CNN’s Ed Lavandera reported on “The Situation Room.” The process could take anywhere from six hours to two days.

BP said in a statement Monday night that, “It is expected, although cannot be assured, that no oil will be released to the ocean for the duration of the test. This will not however be an indication that flow from the well bore has been permanently stopped.”

As efforts continued Monday to get the new cap in place, Allen and BP executives emphasized that work was also continuing on two relief wells, which he called “the final solution” to shutting down the leaking well.

The first relief well is now five feet away from the main well and, at 17,840 feet deep, it’s 30 feet above the hoped-for final casing point, BP’s Suttles said Monday. That’s where BP will run additional tests, then aim for the final intersection point. Given the closeness to the target, he said that BP was estimating “kill” operations to shut down the main well could take place at the end of the month.

real-time video is here, and a zillion other places as well.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/12/2010 at 08:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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