After another failure, BP scrambles to stem leak

BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer Ben Nuckols, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 28 mins ago
ROBERT, La. – With BP declaring failure in its latest attempt to plug the uncontrolled gusher feeding the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the company is turning to yet another mix of risky undersea robot maneuvers and longshot odds to keep crude from flowing into the Gulf.

Six weeks after the catastrophe began, oil giant BP PLC is still casting about for at least a temporary fix to the spewing well underneath the Gulf of Mexico that's fouling beaches, wildlife and marshland. A relief well that's currently being drilled - which is supposed to be a better long-term solution - won't be done for at least two months. That would be in the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins Tuesday.

President Barack Obama said it is "as enraging as it is heartbreaking" that the most ambitious bid yet for a temporary solution failed. BP said Saturday that the procedure known as the "top kill" failed after engineers tried for three days to overwhelm the crippled well with heavy drilling mud and junk 5,000 feet underwater.

Now, BP hopes to saw through a pipe leading out from the well and cap it with a funnel-like device using the same remotely guided undersea robots that have failed in other tries to stop the gusher.

Robert Dudley, BP's managing director, said on "Fox News Sunday" that company officials were disappointed that they "failed to wrestle this beast to the ground."

Engineers will use remotely guided undersea robots to try to lower a cap onto the leak after cutting off part of a busted pipe leading out from the well. The funnel-like device is similar to a huge containment box that failed before when it became clogged with icelike slush. Dudley said officials "learned a lot" from that failure and will pump warm water through the pipes to prevent the ice problems.


The spill is the worst in U.S. history - exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster - and has dumped between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates. The leak began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people.

Suttles said BP is already preparing for the next temporary fix. The company plans to cut off the damaged riser, and then try to cap it with a containment valve. The effort is expected to take between four and seven days.

"This scares everybody, the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven't succeeded so far," BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Saturday. "Many of the things we're trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 feet."

He said cutting off the damaged riser isn't expected to cause the flow rate of leaking oil to increase significantly.

Experts have said that a bend in the damaged riser likely was restricting the flow of oil somewhat, so slicing it off and installing a new containment valve is risky.

"If they can't get that valve on, things will get much worse," said Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama.

Johnson said he thinks BP can succeed with the valve, but added: "It's a scary proposition."

News that the top kill fell short drew a sharply worded response from President Obama on Saturday, a day after he visited the Gulf Coast to see the damage firsthand.

"It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimized by this manmade disaster are made whole," Obama said.

In the days after the spill, BP was unable to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blowout preventer atop the damaged well, then two weeks later, ice-like crystals clogged a 100-ton box the company tried placing over the leak. Earlier this week, engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube after it sucked up a disappointing 900,000 gallons of oil from the gusher.

Frustration has grown as drifting oil closes beaches and washes up in sensitive marshland. The damage is underscored by images of pelicans and their eggs coated in oil. Below the surface, oyster beds and shrimp nurseries face certain death. Fishermen complain there's no end in sight to the catastrophe that's keeping their boats idle.

In the latest try, BP engineers pumped more than 1.2 million gallons of heavy drilling mud into the well and also shot in assorted junk, including metal pieces and rubber balls.

The hope was that the mud force-fed into the well would overwhelm the upward flow of oil and natural gas. But Suttles said most of the mud escaped out of the damaged pipe that's leaking the oil, called a riser.

Word that the top kill had failed hit hard in fishing communities along Louisiana's coast.

"Everybody's starting to realize this summer's lost. And our whole lifestyle might be lost," said Michael Ballay, the 59-year-old manager of the Cypress Cove Marina in Venice, La., near where oil first made landfall in large quantities almost two weeks ago.

Johnny Nunez, owner of Fishing Magician Charters in Shell Beach, La., said the spill is hurting his business during what's normally the best time of year - and there's no end in sight.

"If fishing's bad for five years, I'll be 60 years old. I'll be done for," he said after watching BP's televised announcement.

The top official in coastal Plaquemines Parish said news of the top kill failure brought tears to his eyes.

"They are going to destroy south Louisiana. We are dying a slow death here," said Billy Nungesser, the parish president. "We don't have time to wait while they try solutions. Hurricane season starts on Tuesday."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

This is unbelieveable. We are allmost a month and a half into this and they still have no idea how to stop this leak.

I guess I just don't understand why they never had some type of plan in place in case something like this happened.

What made them experts?

Hussein and BP may have started the end of marine life as we know it.

Husseins part is, he knew they were using substandard equpment and
allowed it. What a "Historic" moment for him.

Sooner or later those 25 mile long, 6 mile wide, 3,000 ft. deep plumes will reach the gulf stream.

Any fish/mammal that is poisoned by the oil will die and the scavengers that clean up the oceans will become extinct as well.

Enjoy seafood and life while you still can.

It really makes me sick that some people are turning this into a political issue. This is a HUGE man-made disaster unlike anything we have ever seen before. If this continues, as it appears it will, the devastation will be felt for decades in the gulf coast states and possibly the entire USA.

I agree TJN, the thing that amazes me is that they can't get this stopped!

I would think a rig as well engineered as this was, should have had more redundancy in valves to shut off the damn flow. All I can relate it to is my house plumbing. If my sink faucet fails, I can shut off the water under the sink at the angle stop. If the angle stop fails to shut down the flow, I can shut off the main as it comes in the house. If that valve fails, I can shut it off at the meter valve.

I really think they need to take a look at the enginnering of all the wells they have drilled offshore and implement better safety to keep this from happening someplace else.

But, much of it is political.

If a politician hadn't taken a bribe, BP wouldn't have been allowed to be cheap about the equipment they used.

If a Gov. inspector had put a stop-work order until said cheap equipment was changed out.

If Hussein had not given BP full confidence,and even a reward, this all could have been avoided.

Or was it Bush who insisted Obummer pass out the Atta-Boy to BP?

And guess what? BP will still be allowed to do exactly as they always have. No one will go to jail.

I would like to see the end of the pipe. I had a situation where the main water shut off was broke. And it was leaking big time under a sink. I cut it off with the water on, and slammed a compression fitting valve on it. Then just shut the water off. It didn't take six weeks more like 20 minutes and that included going to the hardware for the valve.

Yup, that sounds like a better solution than what they have been trying. A compression fitting slipped on the end of the pipe with the valve open...then close the valve.

I see now they will be trying to cut the pipe and put a cap on it....I don't see how that will work with the pressures.

I am also familiar with doing "Hot Taps" on water mains. Just don't know what those robots are capable of doing that deep.

I don't think their goal is so much to cap the pipe as it is to create a way to extract the oil.

I would hope BP has to subsidize all the workers they are putting out of business. Not suggesting a one-time check, I'm talkin' about for life. A living wage including cost of living increases.

This disaster is a 'gift from the gods' for 'The ONE' ... it plays directly into his hands to destroy our oil industry as well as to make sure we have NO way to ever achieve energy independence. He has already dragged his feet on Gov. Jindal's request to construct barrier islands to lessen the impact of the oil on the actual shoreline. He has not directed his henchmen (say 'Admiral Allen') to okay the required PERMIT APPLICATION for construction of these barriers. He has declared a MORATORIUM on ALL offshore drilling. How much more does he need to do before people can read the handwriting that's scrawled in his childish hand on the wall for all to see ... ? BP AND the 'government' need to be brought up on charges for destruction of a state, a people, an industry, and a way of life - and 'The ONE' is directly culpable as the primary offender. THIS is the only result we can expect from electing a boychild to the highest office in the land. Impeachment is overdue for the boychild.

..and they weren't trying the top kill on day one... why..oh they must've been waiting for the ecological devastation to happen first...real smart..maybe they should just stuff the damn hole with KOTEX...flippin' idiots...

This is in part a political issue. However on this issue people need to put the politics aside until this massive **** up is fixed.

There is a suggested safety feature that BP decided was too costly to install. In fact it is one of the saftey features that was lobbied against because of it's expense. It was about a $560,000 dollar venture but BP and others in the world of oil seemed to think that was an exceptional cost for the estimated 560 million dollars of oil they expected the well to yield.

How does such a comparison seem logical, how does it gain acceptance the EPA or by Congress or in anyone's book? But it did and so it was not procured.

I really hope BP remains in business and I hope their profits will be raped annually to pay for what clean can be accomplished and for the ongoing burdens of those who have lost livliehoods, may lose their homes, their own lifestyles, and possibly to pay for future ravages of this spill, yet unknown.

It will be intresting to see how environmental geologists assess the possible contamination of this spill, on the land, in the water supplies, and in any of the food sources which feed at the site feed on animals from the site.

Good time to become vegan.