2nd UPDATE: Hurricane Delays 3rd BP Oil-Containment System

30th Jun 2010 22:31

(Adds throughout with fresh comments from the Coast Guard on effects of Hurricane Alex on oil spill clean-up and containment efforts.) By Isabel Ordonez Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that a third containment system, which had been expected to increase, as of this week, the amount of oil collected from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, would be online by July 7 after being delayed by bad weather caused by Hurricane Alex. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft said the drilling of two relief wells expected to permanently plug the broken well that has been gushing oil for 10 weeks hasn't been affected by Alex. The first well is still on track to cap the well in August, Zukunft said during a conference call with reporters. Zukunft said all efforts to skim oil off the surface of the sea remain halted due to the high seas preceding Alex, which is expected to make landfall near the Mexico-U.S. border late Wednesday or early Thursday. Clean-up operations will resume as soon as bad weather subsides, which could take one or two days, he said. The storm is expected to damage some of the boom being used to contain the slick, which would result in more oil reaching the shoreline, Zukunft said. Hurricane Alex is hitting the Gulf Coast well to the west of the spill site, which means that the ongoing efforts to collect oil from the damaged well can continue. The rough conditions created by the storm are, however, causing responders to adjust some of their plans, highlighting the difficulties that storms in the coming months could pose. "This weather has really impeded us from maintaining an aggressive and steady recovery effort," Zukunft said. BP PLC (BP, BP.LN), which was drilling the Macondo well when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20 and unleashed the largest offshore spill in U.S. history, has been capturing about 25,000 barrels a day from the well in recent weeks through the use of two containment vessels--the Discoverer Enterprise and the Q4000. A third vessel, the Helix Producer, is already on site, but the bad weather hasn't allowed BP to connect it to hoses to collect oil. BP has said the third vessel will raise its containment capacity to as much as 53,000 barrels a day. The Helix Producer is designed to withstand harsher weather conditions than the two vessels already in operation. In the event that a hurricane hits in the vicinity of the Macondo well, responders would pull the containment cap off the well and disconnect the Discoverer Enterprise about five days ahead of the predicted arrival of gale-force winds. Meantime, the Coast Guard also said that tar balls have been found on Texas beaches but that their origin is still being investigated. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the point man for the federal response to the oil spill, said earlier Wednesday that the storm surge from Alex could bring oil inland to marshes. He also said that BP will recognize claims associated with oil from the spill brought onshore into houses and onto properties. -By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 30, 2010 17:31 ET (21:31 GMT)