BP, scientists try to make sense of well puzzle
NEW ORLEANS, LA
Halfway through a critical 48-hour window, the signs were
promising but far from conclusive.
Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said on an evening
conference call that engineers had found no indication that the
well has started leaking underground.
"No news is good news, I guess that's how I'd say it," Wells
said.
Engineers are keeping watch over the well for a two-day period
in a scientific, round-the-clock vigil to see if the well's
temporary cap is strong enough to hold back the oil, or if there
are leaks either in the well itself or the sea floor. One
mysterious development was that the pressure readings were not
rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad
Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.
Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by
scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be
running lower three months into the spill. Or there could be an
undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further
study but remained confident.
"This is generally good news," he said. But he cautioned, "We
need to be careful not to do any harm or create a situation that
cannot be reversed."
He said the testing would go on into the night, at which point
BP may decide whether to reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill
into the sea again.
Throughout the day, no one was declaring victory -- or failure.
President Barack Obama cautioned the public "not to get too far
ahead of ourselves," warning of the danger of new leaks "that
could be even more catastrophic."
Even if the cap passes the test, more uncertainties lie ahead:
Where will the oil already spilled go? How long will it take to
clean up the coast? What will happen to the region's fishermen? And
will life on the Gulf Coast ever be the same again?
"I'm happy the well is shut off, that there's a light at the
end of the tunnel," said Tony Kennon, mayor of hard-hit Orange
Beach, Ala. But "I'm watching people moving away, people losing
their jobs, everything they've got. How can I be that happy when
that's happening to my neighbor?"
On Thursday, BP closed the vents on the new, tight-fitting cap
and finally stopped crude from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for
the first time since the April 20 oil-rig explosion that killed 11
workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet down.
With the cap working like a giant cork to keep the oil inside
the well, scientists kept watch on screens at sea and at BP's
Houston headquarters, in case the buildup of pressure underground
caused new leaks in the well pipe and in the surrounding bedrock
that could make the disaster even worse.
Pressure readings after 24 hours were about 6,700 pounds per
square inch and rising slowly, Allen said, below the 7,500 psi that
would clearly show the well was not leaking. He said pressure
continued to rise between 2 and 10 psi per hour. A low pressure
reading, or a falling one, could mean the oil is escaping.
But Allen he said a seismic probe of the surrounding sea floor
found no sign of a leak in the ground.
Benton F. Baugh, president of Radoil Inc. in Houston and a
National Academy of Engineering member who specializes in
underwater oil operations, warned that the pressure readings could
mean that an underground blowout could occur. He said the oil
coming up the well may be leaking out underground and entering a
geological pocket that might not be able to hold it.
But Roger N. Anderson, a professor of marine geology and
geophysics at Columbia University, said the oil pressure might be
rising slowly not because of a leak, but because of some kind of
blockage in the well.
"If it's rising slowly, that means the pipe's integrity's still
there. It's just getting around obstacles," he said. He added that
"any increase in pressure is good, not bad."
The cap is designed to prevent oil from spilling into the Gulf,
either by keeping it bottled up in the well, or by capturing it and
piping it to ships on the surface. It is not yet clear which way
the cap will be used if it passes the pressure test.
Either way, the cap is a temporary measure until a relief well
can be completed and mud and cement can be pumped into the broken
well deep underground to seal it more securely than the cap. The
first of the two relief wells being drilled could be done by late
July or August.
In a positive sign, work on the relief wells resumed Friday. The
project had been suspended earlier this week for fear that the
capping of the well could interfere with it.
There was no end in sight to the cleanup in the water and on
shore. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons have
spilled into the Gulf, according to government estimates.
In Orange Beach, Ala., long strands of white absorbent boom
strung along the shore were stained chocolate brown after a fresh
wave of BB-size tar balls washed up. Charter boat captains who
can't fish because of the spill patrolled the shore, looking for
oil slicks. Fishing guides spent their time ferrying Coast Guard
personnel. A flotilla of fishing boats operating as skimmers plied
the waters across the Gulf.
Large sections of the Gulf Coast have been closed to fishing and
shellfish harvesting. Many fishermen have been hired out by BP to
do cleanup work.
Cade Thomas, a 38-year-old fishing guide from Pine, La., said
the whole mentality of the place is different.
"It's all changed dramatically. The fishing stories aren't
there," he said. "There's no stories to tell except where we went
to today and how much oil we saw."
In Grand Isle, La., most of the summer rental cottages are
vacant, tables at the single high-end seafood restaurant are empty,
and souvenir shops are barely doing enough business to pay the
bills. A hand-painted sign along the main road rechristens the
tourist town "Grand Oil."
Folks are grateful the gusher has been stopped, but many say it
is too late to save this summer. Thousands of tourists have gone
elsewhere.
Scientists cannot say for certain what the long-term
environmental effect will be. But long after the well is finally
plugged, oil could still be washing up in marshes and on beaches as
tar balls or patties.
There is also fear that months from now, those tar balls could
move west to Corpus Christi, Texas, or travel up and around Florida
to Miami or North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Tim Kerner, mayor of Lafitte, La., said the crisis isn't over by
a long shot.
"There's millions and millions of gallons of oil out there, and
they need to keep the fishermen working," he said. "We need to
constantly have that boom up absorbing oil along the banks and hard
boom in the bayous to protect the marshland. It's no time to pull
back. It's time to continue to fight until we know it's over."
Kerner added: "I don't want everybody to think we won this
battle. This battle's going to be ongoing for a while."