BP Puts Containment Cap on Gushing Gulf Well Pipe
June 4th, 2010This seems like good news, but all we really have to go on is what BP and the government are saying.
CNN reports, “Early Friday morning a non-stop cloud of oil was still spewing from the pipe.”
Via: Reuters:
After failing days ago to plug the well, BP Plc managed on Thursday to shear away the gushing well pipe a mile below the ocean surface, then lowered a containment cap over the jagged hole left atop the crippled wellhead assembly in its latest bid to curtail the oil flow.
The placement of the cylindrical apparatus was confirmed by the U.S. disaster response chief, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, in a statement describing the move as a “positive development” but “only a temporary and partial fix.”
“It will be some time before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment,” Allen said.
Once the containment cap is firmly in place over the wellhead, the plan is to start funneling at least some of the escaping oil and gas into a large hose that would carry it from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to the surface, where it would be collected in ships and safely removed.
