No oil leaking during test of BP's new capIf cap holds up under pressure, it should contain oil until well plugged7/15/10 - msnbc.com staff and news service reports
HOUSTON — For the first time since the Gulf oil spill disaster started on April 20, the entire flow of oil was being contained Thursday as part of BP's pressure testing of a new cap, BP and federal officials said.
President Barack Obama called the news a "positive sign" but cautioned that "we're still in the testing phase."
If the cap holds, the idea is to keep it on — and the flow checked — until a relief well can plug the blownout well in August.
If the cap does not hold, BP has added to its siphoning capacity and expects to be able to siphon up most if not all of the oil starting next week.
BP had slowly dialed down the flow as part of the pressure test. Engineers are now monitoring the pressure to see if the busted well holds.
BP Vice President Kent Wells said that oil stopped flowing into the water at 3:25 p.m. ET.
The federal Joint Information Center confirmed that the flow had stopped.
"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said. "In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico."
The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.
It was a long-awaited milestone in one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. While not a permanent solution to plug the busted well, the success in capturing the oil spewing out was welcome news.
BP began the tests after a daylong delay for more analysis and then a leaky valve that had to be replaced overnight.
"Following installation of the capping stack and in line with the procedure approved by the National Incident Commander and Unified Area Command, the well integrity test on the MC252 well commenced today," BP said in a press release earlier Thursday.
"The well integrity test will last at least 6 hours and could last up to 48 hours," it added. "During the test, the three ram capping stack is closed, effectively shutting in the well and all sub-sea containment systems (namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer systems) have been temporarily stopped. Although it cannot be assured, it is expected that no oil will be released to the ocean during the test. Even if no oil is released during the test, this will not be an indication that oil and gas flow from the wellbore has been permanently stopped."
The work was interrupted after a leak was discovered late Wednesday in a seal between the cap and the choke line that vents some of the oil. The entire choke line assembly was replaced overnight.
The cap is a stopgap measure designed to keep the oil in the well or funnel it to ships until the relief well is done. It is considered the best hope yet of stopping the crude from streaming into the water for the first time since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 people.
The leak was discovered after two of the three valves on the cap that can open or shut the device had been closed, bringing BP and government scientists, who are also watching, tantalizingly close to starting a 48-hour test of how the well and cap withstand the pressure.
Wells had warned that the process of getting ready and then choking the oil a mile below the sea, at a depth only submarine robots can reach, consisted of many precise, individual steps.
"Any one of these steps can take longer than anticipated," Wells said Wednesday, before the leak disrupted work.
National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Thursday that it's not clear yet whether the cap, which was mounted on the well Monday, will ultimately be used to shut in the oil or to channel it through pipes to collection ships overhead.
"I have a high degree of confidence we can substantially decrease the oil coming into the environment" with the siphoning, Allen said.
Relief well is top goal
The cap and siphoning remain temporary fixes, he said, until one of two relief wells BP is drilling can reach the gusher underground and plug it permanently with heavy drilling mud and cement.
"Make no mistake, the number one goal is to kill the well ... to stop it at the source," he said.
The test will involve closing off all three openings in the cap to the Gulf, in theory stopping the oil leaking into the Gulf. BP will be monitoring pressure under the cap. High pressure is good, because it shows there's only a single leak. Low pressure could mean more leaks farther down in the well.
BP expects to keep the oil trapped in the cap for 48 hours before it decides if the approach is working.
Allen said a committee of scientists and engineers will monitor the results and assess every six hours, and end the test after 48 hours to evaluate the findings.
"I was gung-ho for this test and I remain gung-ho for this test," he said Wednesday.
If the cap works, it will enable BP to stop the oil from gushing into the sea, either by holding all the oil inside the well machinery like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channeling some through lines to four collection ships.
Allen said the testing will also help prepare for the hoped-for permanent fix by the relief wells. The mapping of the sea floor that was done to prepare for the cap test and the pressure readings will also help them determine how much mud and cement will be needed to seal off the well underground.
Drill work was stopped on one relief well because it was not clear what effect the testing of the cap could have on it. Work on the other relief well had already been stopped according to plan.
The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons are leaking every day.
As of Thursday, the 86th day of the disaster,
between 93.5 million gallons and 184.3 million gallons of oil had spewed into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.
Birds smeared in oil
Scientists have warned all that oil is starting to effect the interconnected web of marine life in the Gulf.
In the latest news on the spill's effects on animals, biologists said some birds were being hit harder than first thought.
Oil has smeared at least 300-400 pelicans and hundreds of terns in the largest seabird nesting area along the Louisiana coast — marking a sharp and sudden escalation in wildlife harmed by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The finding underscores that official tallies of birds impacted by the spill could be significantly underestimating the scope of damage.
The government counts only oiled birds collected for rehabilitation or found dead, for use as evidence in the spill investigation. Oiled birds in the many nesting areas that dot the Gulf coast typically are left in place and not counted in official tallies.
Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said Wednesday that they had spotted the oiled pelicans on Raccoon Island over the past several days. The spit of land lines the Gulf outside the state's coastal marshes. An estimated 10,000 birds nest on the island in Terrebonne Parish.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Lisa Williams said state and federal observers had documented only 68 oiled pelicans on Raccoon Island.
Biologist Marc Dantzker with Cornell — considered one of the nation's premier institutions for bird research — said about 30 to 40 of the pelicans spotted by his group were oiled "head-to-tail." Many more had visible blotches of oil.
Dead birds also were seen, although no count was available for those.
"This is a major oiling event of an incredibly important seabird colony," Dantzker said. "Many of these birds will be dead soon — weeks and months. These blotches are deadly."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38255728/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/
