Success As BP Places Cap Over Oil Well

Sky News ^ | July 13th 2010 | Damien Pearse

[Cardhu]

BP has successfully placed a new cap over the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well.

The success was revealed on murky live pictures from an underwater camera and broadcast on BP's website.

They show the "Top Hat 10" device hovering and then lowering completely over the well that had been gushing a mile (1,600 meters) beneath the surface.

The valve has been designed to be a much tighter fit than its predecessor, so as to completely contain the oil.

Once it is screwed into place, BP plans to perform an "integrity test" lasting between six and 48 hours. The US government and BP are due to decide by Thursday whether the valve can stay in place to seal the well shut.

The company's share price, which has taken a battering since the disaster happened three months ago, rose around 5% yesterday as hopes for a solution increased. The oil company has used 46,000 staff and 6,400 ships so far in the clean-up effort.

The operation began after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on April 20 and crude oil began spewing into the ocean.

[Eva]

Obama has nothing to do with hiring these guys. It’s BP. BP is spending money like you wouldn’t believe and those people don’t want it to end. I don’t mean the oil spill, I mean they don’t want the money to end. They still hate Obama for slowing down the process. Obama has not made any friends among the oil spill workers.

[justa-hairyape]

Have you ever heard of ‘water hammer’ when one suddenly turns off a faucet?

Yep. Have actually heard the water hammer thud in the 30 year old building I am in right now.

No one really knows exactly what is happening and all the dynamics of it but BP is confident that the original BOP won’t blow apart if the stream is slowly impeded and eventually stopped.

The first top kill event was stopped because of concerns of the integrity of the well bore. And they simply do not have the ability to inspect the structural integrity of the BOP. So there is no logical reason for the confidence. It is simply a guess.

[Eva]

Today we learned that the Obama administration is delaying the tests on the cap, probably because Harry Reid wants to ram his cap and trade bill through the Senate this week before any real progress is made on the repair to the well. The real secret is that BP is also ready to make contact for the relief well. They were only inches away, last week, so they have to be ready to make contact for the relief well almost simultaneously with the completion of the testing. BP didn’t want it known that they were making such good progress on the relief well because they didn’t want to raise expectations until it was a sure thing. That well could be fixed this week if Obama would step out of the way.