2nd UPDATE: BP Starts Work On New Gulf Spill-Containment Cap

10th Jul 2010 00:37

(Updates with details on work's progress, additional comments from BP official.) By Mark Long Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) effort to contain the oil gushing from the mile-deep leak in the Gulf of Mexico entered a new stage Saturday, with undersea robots starting work to install a new, tight-fitting containment cap on the broken, mile-deep well. Before the new cap can be put in place, engineers had to remove the more loosely fitting cap that had funneled up to 15,000 barrels a day to a ship on the surface, which has now moved off-location. BP spokesman Mark Proegler confirmed that undersea robots successfully removed the cap at about 1:37 p.m. EDT Saturday. This means oil is now temporarily flowing unimpeded from the well head, though some crude continues to be siphoned via a separate system and flared off from a ship, the Q4000, on the surface. The remote-controlled robots are now starting the second of the operation's four expected stages, removing bolts holding a part that must be taken off to allow placement of the new cap. BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells said it would take four to seven days to complete the installation. "If everything went just perfectly, we'd be there in four days," Wells said on a teleconference Saturday evening. BP simultaneously is working to bring online a third containment vessel, the Helix Producer. Wells said the final connections between the well and ship were being made and that oil collection should start ramping up on Sunday, with full capacity reached in about three days. Wells added that a large fleet of oil-skimming vessels had been moved into place near the well site while the well head is uncapped. "We feel we're in a good position to collect the oil very close to the source, which is always important," Wells said earlier Saturday. The injection of chemical dispersants at the site of the leak to break up the escaping oil will also continue. The effort comes more than 12 weeks after Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) Deepwater Horizon burned and sank, unleashing the spill that has fouled the coasts of at least four states and killed untold numbers of sea creatures and birds. For the past several weeks, the more-loosely-fitting cap and the Q4000 system have managed to keep up to about 25,000 barrels of oil a day out of the Gulf. The new sealing cap-system, plus additional measures, will allow the recovery of 60,000-80,000 barrels a day in two to three weeks, Wells said. Scientists have estimated that between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil have flowed into the Gulf from the broken well each day. There are 42 gallons of oil to a barrel. "As we start to ramp up the additional containment capacity, we should see less and less flow...," Wells said. "The intent is to have the ability to contain all of the flow." BP, with the approval of the federal government, went ahead with work to replace the containment cap--even though the Helix Producer isn't online yet--to take advantage of a week's worth of expected calm weather. A pair of tropical storms delayed the installation of the Helix Producer gear over the past couple of weeks. "I validated this plan because the capacity for oil containment when these installations are complete will be far greater than the capabilities we have achieved using current systems," said the federal government's point man on the recovery effort, Ret. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, in a news release late Friday. Although forecasts call for favorable weather over the next several days, the Gulf region is expected to face an active hurricane season. BP noted that such a sealing cap has never been used at such depths and warned "there can be no assurance" that it's going to be successfully installed within the hoped-for time frame. In case something does go wrong with the installation, Wells said "we always have backups for our backups," such as another containment device that is already on site and ready for installation. While the recovery system with the new cap, if all goes as planned, could be able to contain all of the oil flowing from the broken Macondo well, BP and the government have always placed more faith in the ability of a relief well to finally plug and kill the leak. "The relief wells, under any scenario, are the opportunity to kill the well," Wells said. BP and the federal government are officially sticking by their forecast for a mid-August completion of the first of two relief wells. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, however, that BP is pressing to plug the runaway well by late July, and a contractor helping BP with the relief-well process said work was progressing ahead of schedule. Separately on Saturday, Allen announced that Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft will take over from Rear Adm. James Watson as the federal government's on-site coordinator of the spill response, starting Monday. -By Mark Long, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2145; [email protected] (Angel Gonzalez contributed to this report.) (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 10, 2010 19:37 ET (23:37 GMT)