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By GREG BLUESTEIN (AP) – 6 hours ago–May 22, 2010
ROBERT, La. – BP now says it will likely be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot heavy mud into a blown-out well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Three ultra-deepwater rigs and other equipment are at the site where the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded April 20. They’re preparing for a delicate procedure called a “top kill” that BP hopes will stop the flow of oil from the well.
Crews will pump in heavy drilling mud, which is a thick, viscous fluid that’s twice the density of water. That should stop the oil, and then they’ll use cement to keep more from gushing out.
BP’s Doug Suttles says this hasn’t been tried at 5,000 feet underwater before, so engineers want to make sure everything is just right.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
GRAND ISLE, Louisiana (AP) – Officials closed the public beach here Friday as thick gobs of oil resembling melted chocolate washed up, a very visible reminder of the blown-out well that has been spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico for a month.
Up to now, only tar balls and a light sheen had come ashore. But oil was starting to hit the beach at this island resort community in various forms – light sheens, orange-colored splotches and heavier brown sheets – said Chris Roberts, a local official who surveyed the area Friday morning.
At least 6 million gallons (22 million liters) have gushed into the Gulf since the explosion, more than half of what the Exxon Valdez tanker spilled in Alaska in 1989. A growing number of scientists believe it’s more.
BP PLC was leasing the Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the massive spill. The company conceded Thursday what some scientists have been saying for weeks: More oil is flowing from the leak than BP and the Coast Guard had previously estimated.
Brown and vivid orange globs and sheets of foul-smelling oil the consistency of latex paint have also begun coating the reeds and grasses of Louisiana’s wetlands, home to rare birds, mammals and a rich variety of marine life.
A deep, stagnant ooze sat in the middle of a particularly devastated marsh off the Louisiana coast where Emily Guidry Schatzel of the National Wildlife Federation was examining stained reeds.
Ralph Morgenweck of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said countless animals could be feeling the effects of the spill, though workers have found only a handful hurt or injured.
The BP executive in charge of fighting the spill, Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, said he understands the public is frustrated with the response. He told the CBS “Early Show” on Friday that in the worst case scenario, the gusher could continue until early August, when a new well being drilled to cap the flow permanently could be finished.
But Suttles said he believes the rich Gulf environment will recover, in part because it is a large body of water and has withstood other oil spills.
“I’m optimistic, I’m very optimistic that the Gulf will fully recover,” Suttles said on CBS.
A live video feed of the underwater gusher, posted online after lawmakers exerted pressure on BP, shows what appears to be a large plume of oil and gas still spewing into the water next to the stopper-and-tube combination that BP inserted to carry some of the crude to the surface. The House of Representatives committee website where the video was posted promptly crashed because so many people were trying to view it.
BP spokesman Mark Proegler told The Associated Press that the mile-long tube inserted into a leaking pipe over the weekend is capturing 210,000 gallons (800,000 liters) of oil a day – the total amount the company and the Coast Guard have estimated is gushing into the sea – but some is still escaping. He would not say how much.
Washington, meanwhile, has turned up the pressure on BP.
The Obama administration asked the company to be more open with the public by sharing such information as measurements of the leak and the trajectory of the spill. BP has been accused of covering up the magnitude of the disaster.
Also, the Environmental Protection Agency directed BP to employ a less toxic form of the chemical dispersants it has been using to break up the oil and keep it from reaching the surface.
BP is marshaling equipment for an attempt as early as Sunday at a “top kill,” which involves pumping heavy mud into the top of the blown-out well to try to plug the gusher.
If it doesn’t work, the backup plans include a “junk shot” – shooting golf balls, shredded tires, knotted rope and other material into the well to clog it up.
“We’re now looking at a scenario where response plans include lighting the ocean on fire, pouring potent chemicals into the water, and using trash and human hair to stop the flow of oil,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a letter to President Barack Obama calling for a formal moratorium on new offshore drilling permits. “If this is the backup plan, we need to rethink taking the risk in the first place.
Special thanks to Richard Charter