Coast Guard: Removal Of Well Cap Could Happen Saturday

9th Jul 2010 16:50

By Susan Daker Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) could begin removing the containment cap over its gushing well Saturday kicking off a process to replace it with a stronger device that could take several days and temporarily result in an increase of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. government's spill coordinator said Friday. Ret. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said he expects BP to provide him with a timeline of events for the removal and replacement of the cap by midday Friday. Representatives for BP didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The removal of the loose fitting cap could happen "quite quickly," Allen told reporters in a news conference Friday morning. However, putting the new cap on could take several days, he said. For about three days, BP will be able to recover and then flare off only about 10,000 barrels of oil a day, Allen said. The rest of oil, which could be anywhere between 25,000 to 50,000 barrels, will be released into the sea daily during that time frame. However, by early Tuesday, Allen said he hopes that the Helix Producer containment vessel will be fully hooked up to the well and can begin producing oil. On Thursday, BP recovered a total of 24,395 barrels of oil, it said on its website. About 16,305 barrels were collected and about 8,090 barrels were flared off. BP also flared off about 55.5 million cubic feet of natural gas. -By Susan Daker, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9208; [email protected]. (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 09, 2010 11:50 ET (15:50 GMT)