By Stephanie Miceli - July 14, 2010
BP and federal officials postponed testing on a
new, tighter fitting cap to be installed on the rupturing well. They did not
say neither what prompted their decision nor when testing on the 75-ton cap would
officially begin.
Operations ranging from six to 48 hours
can begin after further analysis of the wellhead is completed. Yesterday
engineers spent hours creating a map indicating potentially dangerous spots,
such as gas pockets.
At best, the cap will retain oil inside
the well machinery, or channel it through pipes to collection ships if the
pressure is too great.
But even if proven successful, the 75-ton cap will
only be a temporary measure. To permanently halt the spewing well, it must be
plugged at the source. BP is drilling two relief wells to be jammed with heavy
drilling mud and cement. They are expected to reach the primary broken well by
the end of July.
The New York Times reported at last count that
14 underwater robots are at work in the region, in addition to the drill rigs
Q40000 and the Helix Producer. At full capacity, the latter is expected to
collect up to 25,000 barrels of oil a day. It is currently collecting about
12,500 barrels a day.
Engineers would temporarily shut down the collection
systems to pursue testing.
If pressure tests confirm that the well is
damaged, valves must be reopened and full oil containment will probably not
occur for weeks. In this case, one or two more ships would be needed to control
the flow. That would potentially raise the oil collection rate to more than
60,000 barrels a day.
After accounting for the 90.4 to 178.6
million gallons of spewed oil, that entails an estimated 2,983 day collection
effort--only one of the phases in the Gulf restoration process.
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs
said yesterday, "we are approaching what we hope is the next phase in the gulf
-- understanding that that next phase is likely to take many years.".
(Photo courtesy: AP
Images)
