BP took a big gamble on Saturday [June 10, 2010], using underwater robots to remove a leaking cap from the ruptured oil well more than a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico and allowing the oil to gush unimpeded while workers try to install a new cap with a tighter seal.
BP officials are betting that the new cap, called "Top Hat 10," will enable the beleaguered energy giant to capture all of the leaking oil until the company can finish drilling two relief wells that are expected to provide a permanent fix sometime in August. The relief wells will set the stage for a "bottom kill" solution, in which heavy drilling mud and cement are pumped into the damaged well from below the broken wellhead, shutting down the flow of oil.
But until the new cap is installed (an estimated four to seven days from when the old cap was removed on Saturday), oil will flow freely from the damaged well, adding another 6 million to 17.5 million gallons of oil to the already heavily polluted Gulf Coast. According to official estimates, as much as 174 million gallons of oil has already spilled into the Gulf since April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire, killing 11 workers and launching the worst man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Official government estimates now place the volume of oil leaking from the ruptured well at 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons daily. The old cap was able to capture about 1 million gallons a day, which was then siphoned into ships waiting on the surface and transported to on-shore refineries. The new cap, plus larger containment vessels, will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons, potentially all of the leaking oil, according to BP officials.
At least, that's what will happen if the plan works.
Top Hat 10 weighs about 150,000 pounds and is designed to fully seal the leak. It has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and connections that will allow surface vessels to collect the oil when the valves are open. But the cap will have to withstand enormous pressure from the oil surging from the well beneath it, and BP won't deem the operation successful until the cap has been fully tested to make sure it can take the pressure.
Frankly, given BP's poor safety record, laughable response plan, and recent history of failed attempts to stop the flow of oil and contain the spill, cautious optimism is about the best that even the most positive observers can manage.
If the strategy works, oil from the damaged well will soon stop flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. If it fails, the oil spill could become much worse very quickly, as more oil flows even faster and penetrates more deeply into the fragile marine environment.
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