The latest attempt to stop oil from gushing in the Gulf, sees BP fit a new tighter containment cap. Since Monday when the cap was successfully put in place tests have been underway to see if the cap can remain closed.
They will be looking to see if the well bore – which runs from beneath the cap down 17,000 feet to the oil reservoir – is in good condition.
BP also made progress in this effort Monday, successfully connecting a new vessel to one of the valves on the side of the blowout preventer, called the “kill line.” The new ship, the Helix Producer, has the largest processing capacity of any ship yet used in the collection effort – as many as 25,000 barrels (1 million gallons) of oil a day.
Oil should be reaching the Helix “shortly,” and it will take several days to get operations to full capacity, said Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer of exploration and production, in a briefing to reporters Monday afternoon.
The introduction of the Helix, along with the pipes leading from the new cap, mean that BP might be able to collect all the oil if it has to reopen the cap.
Neither will be needed, however, if BP finds that the well bore is sound and it can leave the cap shut.
The new cap is the latest in a series of procedures to contain the oil that has been gushing from the well since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20. Mr. Suttles said the current operation was not one they would have considered at first but has emerged from 83 days of successes and failures.
“I had to take these steps to learn the things I learned,” he said. “Without taking those steps it’s unlikely I would have known what I know now.”
Source: CS Monitor
Photo: BP/AP
