• US suspends drilling in Arctic Ocean following Gulf disaster
• 'Top kill' plan's chance of success put at 50-70%
• Untried deep underwater tactic uses heavy mud to stem leak
Thursday 27 May 2010 18.05 BST
The Gulf oil spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in US history, according to new estimates released today, although the coastguard and BP said an untested procedure to plug the leak appeared to be working.
A team of scientists, trying to find out how much oil has been flowing since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on 20 April, found the rate was more than twice and possibly up to five times as high as previously thought.
Even using the most conservative estimate, that means the leak has grown to nearly 72 million liters, surpassing the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which at about 42 million litres had been the nation's worst spill. Under the highest estimate, nearly 148 million litres may have spilled.
Meanwhile BP engineers hare well advanced on the risky procedure known as a "top kill" to try to cut off the flow by pumping heavy drilling fluid into the well.
If that works, BP will inject cement into the well to seal it. The top kill has been used above ground but has never been tried in deep water. BP estimated its chance of success at 60 to 70 per cent.
Lieutenant commander Tony Russell, an aide to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday that the mud was stopping some oil and gas but had a ways to go before it proved successful. The top kill started Wednesday night and it could be several days before officials know if it is working.
"As you inject your mud into it, it is going to stop some hydrocarbons," Russell said. "That doesn't mean it's successful."
BP spokesman Tom Mueller also discounted news reports that the top kill had worked. "We appreciate the optimism, but the top kill operation is continuing through the day today – that hasn't changed," he said. "We don't anticipate being able to say anything definitive on that until later today."
Oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands along the Louisiana coast, and the political fallout from the spill has reached Washington, where the head of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned today.
Elizabeth Birnbaum , the director of the minerals management service, stepped down hours before a planned White House press conference where President Barack Obama was expected to extend a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling.
Birnbaum and her agency came under withering criticism from lawmakers of both parties over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry. An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. Birnbaum had run the service since July 2009.
After receiving the results of a 30-day safety review from the interior secretary Ken Salazar, Obama also planned to delay controversial lease sales off the coast of Alaska and cancel plans for drilling lease sales in the Western Gulf and off the coast of Virginia, according to a White House aide.
If the top kill fails, BP says it has several backup plans, including sealing the well's blowout preventer with a smaller cap, which would contain the oil. An earlier attempt to cap the blowout preventer failed. BP could also try a "junk shot" – shooting golf balls and other debris into the blowout preventer to clog it up – during the top kill process.
The only permanent solution is drilling a second well, but that will take a couple of months. BP plans to go ahead with that even if the top kill works.
Speaking six hours into the operation, BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said it appeared to be working and that mud, not oil, was now coming out of the ruptured pipe.
"We're doing everything we can to bring it to closure, and actually we're executing this 'top kill' job as efficiently and effectively as we can," he said.
The company has 50,000 barrels of mud on location, which it described as "far more than necessary, but we want to be prepared for anything".
Last night, Barack Obama described the disaster as "heartbreaking" and expressed hope that the procedure will work.
"If it's successful, and there's no guarantee, it should greatly reduce or eliminate the flow of oil now streaming into the Gulf from the sea floor," the president said .
Obama added: "We will not rest until this well is shut, the environment is repaired and the clean-up is complete."
His statement followed a poll by CBS News yesterday which found 70% disapproval of BP's handling, and 45% unhappy with the Obama administration's response.
Yesterday, Salazar reiterated that BP will be "held accountable" for compensation and government costs.
The oil company may find itself having to answer further questions today, after revelations that just days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion the company had chosen to use the riskier of two types of casing for the leaking well.
The New York Times reported the existence of a BP document, given to the paper by a Congressional investigator, which noted the casing that the company had chosen was described in the document as the "best economic case", despite BP admitting it carried risks beyond the potential gas leaks.
Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas at Austin, told the newspaper that BP's decision was "without a doubt a riskier way to go", an assessment which the New York Times reported several other engineers had agreed with. A BP spokesman argued that the Deepwater Horizon approach had not been unusual.
Hayward yesterday visited the scene of the environmental disaster in Port Fourchon in southern Louisiana, where he said he was "absolutely gutted" that the crude oil had started to wash ashore.
"As I said, it's clear that the defence of the shoreline, at this point, has not been successful," Hayward said. "I feel devastated by that, absolutely gutted. What I can tell you is that we are here for the long haul. We are going to clean every drop of oil off the shore.
Just days after a top US official suggested that BP faced an "existential crisis", Hayward conceded: "I think this is clearly a major reputational issue for BP."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/top-kill-bp-oil-spill
• 'Top kill' plan's chance of success put at 50-70%
• Untried deep underwater tactic uses heavy mud to stem leak
Thursday 27 May 2010 18.05 BST
The Gulf oil spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in US history, according to new estimates released today, although the coastguard and BP said an untested procedure to plug the leak appeared to be working.
A team of scientists, trying to find out how much oil has been flowing since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on 20 April, found the rate was more than twice and possibly up to five times as high as previously thought.
Even using the most conservative estimate, that means the leak has grown to nearly 72 million liters, surpassing the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which at about 42 million litres had been the nation's worst spill. Under the highest estimate, nearly 148 million litres may have spilled.
Meanwhile BP engineers hare well advanced on the risky procedure known as a "top kill" to try to cut off the flow by pumping heavy drilling fluid into the well.
If that works, BP will inject cement into the well to seal it. The top kill has been used above ground but has never been tried in deep water. BP estimated its chance of success at 60 to 70 per cent.
Lieutenant commander Tony Russell, an aide to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday that the mud was stopping some oil and gas but had a ways to go before it proved successful. The top kill started Wednesday night and it could be several days before officials know if it is working.
"As you inject your mud into it, it is going to stop some hydrocarbons," Russell said. "That doesn't mean it's successful."
BP spokesman Tom Mueller also discounted news reports that the top kill had worked. "We appreciate the optimism, but the top kill operation is continuing through the day today – that hasn't changed," he said. "We don't anticipate being able to say anything definitive on that until later today."
Oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands along the Louisiana coast, and the political fallout from the spill has reached Washington, where the head of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned today.
Elizabeth Birnbaum , the director of the minerals management service, stepped down hours before a planned White House press conference where President Barack Obama was expected to extend a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling.
Birnbaum and her agency came under withering criticism from lawmakers of both parties over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry. An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. Birnbaum had run the service since July 2009.
After receiving the results of a 30-day safety review from the interior secretary Ken Salazar, Obama also planned to delay controversial lease sales off the coast of Alaska and cancel plans for drilling lease sales in the Western Gulf and off the coast of Virginia, according to a White House aide.
If the top kill fails, BP says it has several backup plans, including sealing the well's blowout preventer with a smaller cap, which would contain the oil. An earlier attempt to cap the blowout preventer failed. BP could also try a "junk shot" – shooting golf balls and other debris into the blowout preventer to clog it up – during the top kill process.
The only permanent solution is drilling a second well, but that will take a couple of months. BP plans to go ahead with that even if the top kill works.
Speaking six hours into the operation, BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said it appeared to be working and that mud, not oil, was now coming out of the ruptured pipe.
"We're doing everything we can to bring it to closure, and actually we're executing this 'top kill' job as efficiently and effectively as we can," he said.
The company has 50,000 barrels of mud on location, which it described as "far more than necessary, but we want to be prepared for anything".
Last night, Barack Obama described the disaster as "heartbreaking" and expressed hope that the procedure will work.
"If it's successful, and there's no guarantee, it should greatly reduce or eliminate the flow of oil now streaming into the Gulf from the sea floor," the president said .
Obama added: "We will not rest until this well is shut, the environment is repaired and the clean-up is complete."
His statement followed a poll by CBS News yesterday which found 70% disapproval of BP's handling, and 45% unhappy with the Obama administration's response.
Yesterday, Salazar reiterated that BP will be "held accountable" for compensation and government costs.
The oil company may find itself having to answer further questions today, after revelations that just days before the Deepwater Horizon explosion the company had chosen to use the riskier of two types of casing for the leaking well.
The New York Times reported the existence of a BP document, given to the paper by a Congressional investigator, which noted the casing that the company had chosen was described in the document as the "best economic case", despite BP admitting it carried risks beyond the potential gas leaks.
Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas at Austin, told the newspaper that BP's decision was "without a doubt a riskier way to go", an assessment which the New York Times reported several other engineers had agreed with. A BP spokesman argued that the Deepwater Horizon approach had not been unusual.
Hayward yesterday visited the scene of the environmental disaster in Port Fourchon in southern Louisiana, where he said he was "absolutely gutted" that the crude oil had started to wash ashore.
"As I said, it's clear that the defence of the shoreline, at this point, has not been successful," Hayward said. "I feel devastated by that, absolutely gutted. What I can tell you is that we are here for the long haul. We are going to clean every drop of oil off the shore.
Just days after a top US official suggested that BP faced an "existential crisis", Hayward conceded: "I think this is clearly a major reputational issue for BP."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/top-kill-bp-oil-spill
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