NO OIL was leaking from BP’s blown-out Macondo well into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since late April, the company senior vice-president of exploration and production Ken Wells said yesterday.
Mr Wells said a new cap had completely shut in the flow as the company conducted a critical pressure test on the well that has been polluting the ocean and coastline for almost three months in the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
The pressure test has been twice delayed – once by the US government, which wanted to ensure its safety, and once by a faulty hose discovered after the procedure had received the all-clear.
As BP prepared to start the test late on Wednesday, it found a leak in one of the lines attached to a new stack of valves placed on the well head earlier in the week.
Analysts warned that there were risks involved in the test, which involves placing a containment cap over the well. The cap is equipped with a blow-out preventer, which BP hoped to use to shut the well completely.
If the blow-out preventer had failed to shut the well, however, the containment system was big enough to collect all the leaking oil and direct it through tubes to containment vessels – a process BP hoped would bring the leak under control. But in shutting off the leaking oil, BP risks causing another leak elsewhere, such as around the well head. For this reason, it will move slowly, gradually sealing off the flow of oil and testing for any sign of leaks.
Admiral Thad Allen, national incident commander, said BP would stop every six hours to determine whether to proceed. After a maximum of 48 hours, the team would assess next steps, he said. “What we didn’t want to do was compound that problem by making an irreversible mistake,” he said.
Jonathan Parry, director of Global Gas Supply of IHS Cera, a consultancy, said the design of deep-water oil wells includes the modelling of temperatures and pressures within a well prior to, during and after various operations including drilling and production. The BP well was not designed to produce oil in the uncontrollable manner in which it has been leaking, and at these flow rates.
The first of two relief wells is expected to be finished and able to intercept and plug the leak by mid-August. The relief wells are considered the only permanent solution to stopping, or killing, the leak.
-Legislation that could bar BP from getting new offshore oil leases in the US passed another hurdle in Congress yesterday while a separate Bill to boost safety requirements for offshore drilling also advanced.
The legislation is among several dozen Bills pending that would rewrite the regulatory rulebook and raise exploration costs for oil firms. But the Bills have a long way to go if they are to make it into law. The House of Representatives and Senate would have to vote on the measures before they could be sent to the White House.
– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010; additional reporting Reuters)