BP stops work in the gulf after days of success

BP stopped the activity on two major projects, which would cease the flow of billowing oil from its well situated in the Gulf of Mexico, after days of positive results and approaching the final goal of controlling the crisis. After nearly three months of failed attempts to stop the spill, which has contaminated the beaches and ruined the fishing industry from Florida to Texas, the oil giant finally was on track. BP and the government declared that it’s needed to make more analysis of the situation before testing could begin on a temporary well cap, which is the primary alternative of stopping the geyser. The work on relief wells that will plug the flow from underneath with cement and mud was also stopped.

With no clear deadline on when it will end, the oil continues to spill free in the water of the Gulf of Mexico. When the cap project seemed to move ahead, BP was able to regain some of their oil spill losses earlier this week on the London stock market, after ceasing the project the shares went down to 2.5 percent in afternoon trading.
“We want to move forward with this as soon as we are ready to do it,” declared a senior vice president from BP, Kent Wells.

The oil giant quickly finish preparations this weekend for putting the 75 ton cap in place, Monday the undersea robots were set in place at the top of the well, this raised hopes that the oil well could be verified for the first time since the equipment leased by BP exploded in April killing 11 people.

Kent Wells said that the call to reevaluate the plans for testing the new cap was a government idea which means that the plans were on hold for 24 hours. After the period is ended the company and the federal officials will consider again the best way forward.

The vice president of BP did not stand with the idea of getting forward with the testing, which would mean to close the valves on the cap and stop the leak to see if the cap resists at the pressure in the well. Wells suggested that other methods might be used.

If BP gets the approval to do the cap testing after the analysis is over, the engineers need to close lines that are carrying oil to vessels only to see how the cap handles the pressure.

In the end they would close the openings of the cap pipes and valves sequentially, watching the pressure to see if an eruption is possible. The whole drill could take from 6 to 48 hours.

The experts will be watching for high pressure numbers of 8,000 to 9,000 pounds per square inch. Assuming the pressure is lower than 6,000 might indicate that the well has unidentified leaks.

In 85 days of spilling oil the number of gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico is up to 182 million.