Storm may delay BP clean-up

22nd Jul 2010 16:14

BP's foray back above £4 a share didn't last long as workers stopped drilling a relief well in the Gulf of Mexico and prepared to flee a tropical cyclone.The National Hurricane Center says there's a "near 100%" certainty that a cyclone will form over the Bahamas, although the path of the storm is not yet known.It's thought work could be held up for two weeks due to the slow-moving nature of the vessels and equipment in the area.Employees of Shell have already started to pack up and leave."It's a controlled chaos out there," Lt Patrick Montgomery told the Associated Press news.Admiral Thad Allen, the retired coast guard in charge of the clean-up operation, recently granted BP extra time to keep a cap on its broken well.He must now decide whether to continue capping the well, or remove it and allow thousands of barrels of oil to escape into the sea.A relief well, started on 2 May, has reached target depth and "ranging runs" will be now used to guide the drill bit to a MC252 well intercept point. Operations will then begin to kill the flow of oil and gas from the reservoir by pumping specialized heavy fluids down the relief well. The second relief well has been temporarily halted so it won't interfere with the ranging runs on the first relief well. "Although uncertainty remains, the first half of August remains the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will be completed and kill operations performed," BP said Monday.