Coast Guard: Still Discussing Whether Or Not BP Will Switch Cap

7th Jul 2010 19:43

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) and government officials are still discussing whether or not the oil giant will replace the cap that is allowing the capture of some oil flowing from the broken Macondo well, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday. BP had originally planned to replace the cap with a stronger one that would allow for the capture of more oil, but those plans are still up in the air, Admiral Thad Allen said during a teleconference from on board the Discoverer Enterprise, one of the collection ships hooked up to the well. Allen and BP met on Tuesday to discuss the technical plans for the cap. The risks are still being weighed because the replacement operation could result in a temporary increase in the amount of oil flowing from the well, Allen said. Also, spill responders would need a window of good weather conditions in order to perform the operation, Allen said. The current containment operation has been stalled several times by bad weather including Hurricane Alex, which made landfall last week several hundred miles away from the well. Right now, the sea state near the rig is relatively rough and has already slowed the hook-up of a third vessel, the Helix Producer, Allen said. The vessel is partially hooked up but Allen said he estimates that it will take another three days before it can begin capturing oil. On Tuesday, BP recovered 24,760 barrels of oil. About 16,535 of those barrels were collected and the rest were flared off. BP also flared 57.5 million cubic feet of natural gas, the company said. Federal and independent scientists estimate that about 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil a day are flowing from the well. -By Susan Daker, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9208; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 07, 2010 14:43 ET (18:43 GMT)