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United States News Title: BP Begins `Top Kill' Operations in Attempt to Plug Leaking Gulf Oil Well May 26 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc began its most ambitious attempt to plug a more than monthlong leak from an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is aiming to tamp down the gusher of oil and natural gas with mud-like drilling fluid, then seal the well with cement. Success would bring to an end a leak that has poured millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf and soiled at least 70 miles (113 kilometers) of coastline. The so-called top kill process might take two days to complete, Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said this morning on NBC’s “Today” show. Hayward put the chances of success at 60 percent to 70 percent two days ago. The well, about 40 miles off Louisiana’s coast, began leaking after an April 20 explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. BP, based in London, leased the rig from Geneva-based Transocean Ltd., the largest deepwater driller. BP is “in the position of a surgeon about to operate on one of your loved ones,” Gene Grabowski, chairman of the crisis and litigation practice at Levick Strategic Communications, a public relations firm in Washington, said today in an interview. “Once they cap the well, a level of anxiety will still be there but it will go down precipitously,” he said. “The healing can proceed and they can start talking about what they’re doing to clean up the environment and what the road ahead looks like.” ‘Warning Signs’ Several “warning signs” were missed before the rig explosion, which resulted in the death of 11 workers and triggered the spill, two congressmen said yesterday. Information provided to congressional investigators by BP indicated a “fundamental mistake” because operators failed to address a “very large abnormality” in pressure tests of the well, according to the memo by Democratic Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Bart Stupak of Michigan. “A whole series of failures” preceded the disaster and investigations are “far from complete,” Hayward said on CNN today. The spill has cost BP $760 million, or about $22 million a day, the company said May 24. Average daily profit last year was $45 million a day, according to company reports compiled by Bloomberg. Federal officials yesterday expanded fisheries closures to encompass about 22 percent of the Gulf of Mexico, or 54,096 square miles, idling commercial and recreational fishing boats. President Barack Obama plans to visit the region on May 28 and outline new safety measures for offshore drilling. Relief Wells After receiving an initial report tomorrow on the cause of the explosion, Obama will respond with new permitting procedures for oil exploration and tougher inspections to ensure safety and environmental rules are being followed, according to an administration official who asked not to be identified before the announcement. BP has said the well can be permanently sealed only by one of two relief wells it’s drilling, which won’t be complete before August. BP will clean up “every drop” of oil, Hayward said May 24. If the top of the well can’t be plugged, the company plans to replace the damaged riser pipe at the well. That requires cutting away a kink in the existing pipe, at least temporarily increasing the size of the leak, BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells said yesterday. Crews would then attach a rubber-sealed cap to the top of the blowout preventer, a series of valves designed to cut off flow from the well. That effort would divert more oil to the surface than BP has been able to manage with a small pipe inserted in the broken riser on May 16, according to Wells. BP rose 6.8 pence, or 1.4 percent, to 492 pence at 4:35 p.m. in London. The shares have dropped 25 percent since the rig exploded.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Owe-bama's katrina continues...
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