Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

In a relatively rare Gulf of Mexico oil spill update coming directly from the White House, President Obama said “the new cap is good news” — a reference to the “capping stack” installed earlier this week, which has thus far improved the odds of a total mop-up.

In a statement, the President explained that scientists and external experts who “met through the night and continue this morning to analyse the data from the well integrity test” were seeking to determine whether they could safely shut in the well using the new cap without creating new problems, including further oil leaks in the sea floor.

Mr. Obama noted, “Either we will be able to stop the flow, or we will be able to use it to capture almost all of the oil until the relief well is done. But we’re not going to know for certain which approach makes sense until additional data is in.”

Touching upon the positive aspect of the latest development, the President added that even if a shut-in were not possible, the new cap and the additional equipment being placed in the Gulf would be able to contain up to 80,000 barrels a day “which should allow us to capture nearly all the oil until the well is killed”.

However, Mr. Obama also cautioned that “when the oil stops gushing, everybody feels like we’re done — and we’re not”. He said that the final solution to the problem was going to be the relief wells and getting that completed “but there’s no doubt that we have made progress as a consequence of this new cap fitting on, and that even if it turns out that we can’t keep the containment cap on to completely stop the oil, it’s going to allow us to capture much more oil and we’ll see less oil flowing into the Gulf”.

He added that there was still “a big job to do” in terms of skimming surface oil and better coordination on the ground along the shorelines. “There’s still going to be an enormous cleanup job to do, and there’s still going to be the whole set of issues surrounding making sure people are compensated properly, that the $20 billion fund is set up and is acting expeditiously,” Mr. Obama said.

Labels: BP oil spill, Gulf oil spill, Obama

From The Hindu

BP on Monday expressed optimism that its latest strategy to quell the oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico by installing a new cap on its ruptured wellhead was proceeding as per plan. According to National Incident Commander Thad Allen, this strategy could potentially contain the entire leak in a matter of days.

In a statement over the weekend BP said that following approval from Admiral Allen, it had begun replacing the existing lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap — the so-called “top hat” system — over the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blow-out preventer (BOP) with a new sealing cap assembly (the “capping stack”).

“Installation of the sealing cap is proceeding as planned,” BP added, noting that the Discoverer Enterprise vehicle had removed the LMRP cap and its flange, or connecting projection.

Simultaneously, the disaster response team said that skimming operations had been “doubled” at the well site. Skimming and other methods of removing oil assumed particular importance after it was learned that the process for deployment of the capping stack would paradoxically increase the amount of oil leaking temporarily.

Thus during the procedure, close to 60,000 barrels of oil per day are expected to be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico without any containment. To mitigate this heightened flow, Admiral Allen had earlier pressed BP operations chief Robert Dudley to use a third containment ship, the Helix Producer.

In addition to skimming off this interim excess flow of oil, Admiral Allen’s team said “favourable weather conditions allowed responders to conduct a successful controlled burn operation for the third consecutive day”. They added that to date the controlled burns had helped to remove more than 10.3 million gallons of oil from the water.

Relief wells

Meanwhile BP has continued digging relief wells, as a fail-safe option in case the containment caps should be unable to halt the oil gushing into the Gulf. The disaster response team reported over the weekend that “The drilling of relief wells continues… The Development Driller III has drilled the first relief well to a depth of 17,810 feet below the Gulf surface. The Development Driller II has drilled the second relief well to a depth of more than 15,900 feet below the surface.”

BP shares trading higher

BP also issued an update on the cost to the company efforts to mop up the spill. In a statement, the oil major said, “The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately 3.5 billion dollars, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs.” Yet BP’s shares were trading almost seven per cent higher on Monday, as rumours of the company planning an asset sale worth $100 million abounded, as did rumours that other oil giants, such as ExxonMobil were considering buying out the beleaguered BP.

However, even as the administration and BP continue to battle the leak, which began in late April, a presidential commission charged with investigating the spill and prescribing rules for future offshore drilling held its first public meeting on Monday, media reports said. According to CNN, “The National Oil Spill Commission has six months to determine what happened… and how to prevent something similar from ever happening again.”

Labels: BP oil spill, capping stack, Gulf oil spill, LMRP, Thad Allen