LIVE video feed of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (UPDATED 7-31-10)

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A new phase for oil-spill cleanup
With less surface oil, work may scale back.



By Harry R. Weber and Greg Bluestein

Associated Press
BILOXI, Miss. - BP's new boss says it's time for a "scaleback" in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Federal officials say there is no way the crude could reach the East Coast. And fishing areas are starting to reopen.

There were several signs Friday that the era of thousands of oil-skimming boats and hazardous-materials-suited beach crews was giving way to long-term efforts to clean up and compensate people for their losses. But local fishermen say oil remains a bigger problem than BP and the government are letting on.

Other people contend that the impact of the spill has been overblown, given that little oil remains on the gulf surface, but Bob Dudley, who heads BP's oil-spill recovery and will take over as its chief executive in October, rejected those assertions.

"Anyone who thinks this wasn't a catastrophe must be far away from it," he said in Biloxi, where he announced that former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt would help with BP's gulf restoration work.

After the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers, BP's blown-out well gushed 94 million to 184 million gallons of oil before a temporary cap stopped it July 15. Efforts to permanently plug the gusher had been expected to begin as early as Sunday, but the government's point man for the spill said Friday that those plans had hit a snag.

Crews found debris in the bottom of the relief well that ultimately will be used to plug the leak for good, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said. The debris must be fished out before crews can begin the "static kill" procedure that officials hope will make the rest of the job easier.

"It's not a huge problem, but it has to be removed before we can put the pipe casing down," Allen said.

The sediment settled in the relief well last week when crews popped in a plug to keep it safe ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. Removing it will take 24 to 36 hours and likely push the kill back to Tuesday, Allen said.

Once the relief well is ready, crews can begin the static kill, in which mud and possibly cement are pumped in through the temporary cap.

The better that procedure seals the blown-out well, the easier it will be to plug it forever by pumping in cement from below using the relief well. The blown-out well could be killed for good by late August, though a tropical storm could set the timetable back.

As the work of plugging the well appears to reach the homestretch, so does much of the cleanup work. Relatively little oil remains on the surface of the gulf, officials say, leaving less for thousands of oil skimmers to do.

It's "not too soon for a scaleback" in the cleanup, Dudley said, and in areas where there is no oil, "you probably don't need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach." But he said there was "no pullback" in BP's commitment to clean up the spill.

There had been fears that the spill could reach South Florida and the East Coast through a strong loop current, but federal officials said Friday that earlier reports of some oil reaching the current were wrong.

A new analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that most surface oil in the gulf had degraded to a thin sheen. What remained on the surface and below was hundreds of miles from the loop current.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said a strong eddy was preventing oil from reaching the current.

Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle will most likely be spared an additional major beach oiling, though tar balls could wash ashore, NOAA said.

Lubchenco cautioned that scientists would continue studying the potential effects of the subsurface crude.

"Diluted and out of sight does not mean benign," she said, and scientists still do not know the oil's environmental effect underwater.

For help with long-term recovery, BP has hired Witt and his public-safety and crisis-management consulting firm. Witt, who ran FEMA under President Bill Clinton, said he wanted to set up teams along the gulf to work with BP to address long-term restoration and people's needs. "Our hope is that we can do it as fast as we can," Witt said.

Commercial fishermen were allowed back on a section of Louisiana waters east of the Mississippi River on Friday after federal authorities said samples of finfish and shrimp were safe to eat.

About 70 percent of Louisiana waters are now open to some kind of commercial fishing, but state waters in Mississippi and Alabama remain closed, as do nearly a quarter of federal waters in the gulf.

Rusty Graybill, a boat captain from Yscloskey, La., called the reopening "a joke" as he made a 2-inch circle with his thumb and finger. "I'm still finding tar balls this big out there," he said.

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Oil Spill: BP Says Cap Works, No Oil Flow




NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- BP(BP) said the words that the world -- and the markets -- have been waiting for on Thursday afternoon: the oil flow from the leaking Macondo well has stopped.

BP began its well integrity test on Thursday and had said the flow of oil was slowing as it closed the valves of the leaking Macondo well. Kent Wells, BP senior vice president of exploration and production, made the good news official late on Thursday afternoon and BP shares surged by 7.5% in late trading.

BP said the tests could take anywhere from 6 hours to 48 hours before it can be assured that the new containment can handle the pressure coming from the well after it closes off all the valves, and to make sure that ice crystals don't form within the cap. If successful, BP will not technically need to siphon oil to drillships at the surface, but it would keep doing so, according to BP and government officials, and that's the most important distinction in Thursday's news.

The new containment cap has been put in place so that, in the event of a hurricane, BP can abandon oil capture operations involving ships at the surface and clamp down on the well to stop any oil from flowing into the Gulf. BP still plans to use the new flexible cap system to siphon up to 80,000 barrels of oil to ships on the surface, where oil and gas are stored or flared, as opposed to trying to use the cap itself to keep all of the oil within the well. BP has so far captured or flared a total of 749,000 barrels of oil and gas, according to the latest data provided by the oil company.

BP was also cautiously optimistic with the early results from the test, with BP official Kent Wells saying during a teleconference on Thursday announcing the good news that it's early yet in the testing process.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- BP(BP) Saturday used robotic submarines to remove the existing cap from its leaking oil well, the Associated Press reported.



The removal of the old cap, which will allow oil to gush into the sea unhindered for at least two days, is the first step toward putting a new, tighter cap on well that would be capable of funneling more oil to collection ships on the surface of the Gulf, the AP reported.

The current procedure could contain the oil leak as early as Monday, the AP said. That would mean no more oil would enter the gulf. The well would still be leaking, but the oil would be funneled to tankers in the water.

"I use the word 'contained,' " said the U.S. official in charge of the crisis, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "'Stop' is when we put the plug in down below."

The current cap was installed June 4 but still allowed crude to seep into the gulf. AP said the new cap will fit better and capture all the oil.

BP eventually hopes to complete two relief wells, which would allow the company to plug the leaking well.

The U.S. Coast Guard expects BP's third containment vessel, the Helix Producer, to be siphoning oil by Sunday, which could raise the level of oil capture from roughly 25,000 barrels of oil per day to 53,000 barrels of oil daily.

Shares of BP closed up 31 cents to $34.05 on Friday.

On Thursday, BP was given a deadline by the U.S. government for installing a more flexible cap system for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill containment effort. BP had to delay the installation of the new cap last week when Hurricane Alex hit the Gulf of Mexico, but BP said it would put the cap in place by July 7 or July 8.

With the BP self-imposed deadline looking like it would be missed by the end of the day Thursday, President Obama's oil spill point man, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, told BP that it had 24 hours to present the government with an update on its plans to put a more flexible cap in place.

BP had planned to be already capturing as much as 53,000 barrels of oil per day -- of an estimated 60,000 barrels leaking into the Gulf of Mexico -- using a third containment vessel, the Helix Producer. The Discoverer Enterprise and Q4000 are the vessels already involved in the containment effort to capture oil and gas, and in the case of the Q4000, flare both.

On July 7, BP captured just under 25,000 barrels of oil, in line with the steady rate of oil capture for BP since the cap system was put in place. A total of 684,000 barrels of oil had been captured through Tuesday.

BP also needs a more flexible cap system so that when a storm hits it can move quickly to abandon the treacherous Gulf waters. However, that means the cap will no longer be containing any of the gushing oil.

Energy analysts have been saying for weeks that BP was ahead of schedule with the drilling of its first of two relief wells, and on Thursday, both the government and BP weighed in on the speculation that BP could cut off the leaking well for good before the mid-August projected date for completion of the first relief well.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10770...cm_ven=GOOGLEN



TOP DEVELOPMENTS

* BP (BP.L) ruled out a share issue and talk persisted of sovereign wealth fund interest in the British oil major, boosting its shares on Tuesday even as its Gulf of Mexico oil slick spread to the Texas coast. [ID:nLDE6650FT]

* The first of two relief wells seen as the most promising way to plug the leak is close to its target but drilling will be slow and precise in coming weeks, the U.S. official overseeing the spill response said.

* Tests on a supertanker adapted to skim large quantities of oily water from the Gulf of Mexico surface are inconclusive because of high seas, ship owner TMT Shipping Offshore said on Monday. [ID:nN05191855]

* BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) said on Tuesday that its oil-capture systems at the leak in the Gulf of Mexico collected or burned off 24,980 barrels of oil on Monday. [ID:nN0679053]

* An undetermined amount of oil continued to billow out from under the containment cap and through vents on top into the sea. A team of U.S. scientists estimate the leak is gushing up to 60,000 barrels a day.

SPECIAL REPORT

* A nuclear fix to the leaking well has been touted online and in the occasional newspaper op-ed for weeks now. Washington has repeatedly dismissed the idea and BP execs say they are not considering an explosion -- nuclear or otherwise. (Compiled by Alyson Zepeda in Houston)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN069191320100706


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[Risky Biz]

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[Risky Biz]

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