Feds: Oil, gas leaking from cap on ruptured well
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Ever since the cap was used to bottle up the oil last week,
engineers have been watching underwater cameras and monitoring
pressure and seismic readings to see whether the well would hold or
spring a new leak, perhaps one that could rupture the seafloor and
make the disaster even worse.
Small amounts of oil and gas started coming from the cap late
Sunday, but "we do not believe it is consequential at this time,"
retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
Also, seepage from the seafloor was detected over the weekend
less than two miles away, but Allen said it probably has nothing to
do with the well. Oil and gas are known to ooze naturally from
fissures in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
At an afternoon briefing in Washington, Allen said BP could keep
the cap closed at least another 24 hours, as long as the company
remained alert for leaks.
BP and the government had been at odds over the company's desire
to simply leave the cap in place and employ it like a giant cork in
a bottle until a relief well being drilled deep underground can be
used to plug up the well permanently.
Allen initially said his preference was to pipe oil through the
cap to tankers on the surface to reduce the slight chance that the
buildup of pressure inside the well would cause a new blowout. That
plan would require releasing millions more gallons of oil into the
ocean for a few days during the transition -- a spectacle BP
apparently wants to avoid.
On Monday, Allen budged a bit, saying unless larger problems
develop, he's not inclined to open the cap.
Also on the table: Pumping drilling mud through the top of the
cap and into the well bore to stop up the oil flow. The idea is
similar to the failed top kill plan that couldn't overcome the
pressure of the geyser pushing up.
BP said it could work now because there's less oil to fight
against, but it wasn't clear how such a method would affect the
cap's stability. Allen said the relief well was still the plan for
a permanent fix.
BP and the government are still trying to understand why
pressure readings from the well are lower than expected. Allen
offered two possible explanations: The reservoir the oil is gushing
from is dwindling, or there is an undiscovered leak somewhere down
in the well.
"I'm not prepared to say the well is shut in until the relief
well is done," which is still several weeks away, Allen said.
"There are too many uncertainties."
BP and the Coast Guard learned that lesson the hard way after
they initially said no oil was coming from the site of the
Deepwater Horizon rig after it exploded April 20, killing 11
workers. Even after it became clear there was a leak, the company
and its federal overseers drastically underestimated its size for
weeks.
Robert Carney, a Louisiana State University expert on biological
oceanography, said the seepage is far enough away from the well
that it could be occurring naturally.
"You have little bubbles rising up from the bottom frequently;
that's the methane gas" he said. "Oil would be a little black
dot, more difficult to see. But both escape into the water
regularly."
One other possibility: There are around 27,000 abandoned wells
in the Gulf and two of them are about two miles away. While
officials gave no indication that the seepage was from another
well, they're not checked for leaks, according to an Associated
Press investigation.
Work on a permanent plug is moving steadily, with crews drilling
into the side of the ruptured well from deep underground. By next
week, they could start blasting in mud and cement to block off the
well for good. Killing the well deep underground works more
reliably than bottling it up with a cap.
Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons have gushed
into the Gulf over the past three months in one of America's worst
environment crises.
BP said the cost of dealing with the spill has now reached
nearly $4 billion. The company said it has made payments totaling
$207 million to settle claims for damages. Almost 116,000 claims
have been submitted and more than 67,500 payments have been made.
BP stock was down slightly Monday.