BP Wednesday began a long late operation designed to stop cracking her well in the Gulf of Mexico, raising hope that after five weeks of massive oil leakage into the sea.
The operation, called top-kill means of pump heavy drilling mud into the well injured his head, hoping to offset the pressure of crude oil spilled into the bay since the 20th April.
This is the first time that BP has tried to shut downward the well, an unsafe process, such as BP chief executive Tony Hayward said, could make the leak worse. preceding attempts to curb the state of affairs listening carefully on the amalgamation of oil.
It can be no matter which from half day to several days before engineers decide if the process is effective, noted BP vice leader Kent Wells. The process began at 1800 GMT; about an hour and a half after the U.S. Coast Guard gave the green light.
Until the last minute, examined BP engineers if they would begin the process, "said Hayward, who was up all night to assess the situation as underwater robots took pressure measurements in the valves.
Weeks talk about top-kill has built up expectations. BP officials warned against hope for a quick solution, but gave themselves an up-to 70-percent chance of success. Engineers intended to slow start forced mud pressure to make sure it does not break through weak points further down in the well covering, a federal mining official said.
All previous attempts to decrease the flow have fallen short and thick, heavy oil sinks to 110 km in the Gulf marshes and beach.
It's just a permanent answer to the oil disaster now inward on the coast where fish suffocate, oiled birds die slow deaths and soup oil swamp fragile grass: it's boring drilling of two parallel relief wells is not expected to be finished by next August.
The top-kill method has a triumphant past, but has never been attempted at this depth, 1.6 kilometers beneath the surface. The Burrows well another six kilometers below the seabed, "explains a lot of force forces the oil and gas out of the two leaks.
Engineers are forced up to 50 barrels of heavy mud in one minute vent opening of the five floors injured blowout prevention - just one that failed to shut down when a sudden rush of gas ignite and blew the rig, killing 11 workers, in April 20.
If the specially construct killing mud succeed and "deleted" the pressure in the well, the engineers then pumping cement into the well covering.
In training for top-kill, BP added more underwater robots that can resist human devastating pressure, fiddle with the stuck valve and take pressure capacity.
Hayward admit Wednesday that "the great experience of the event" was that BP was sadly unprepared for disaster. It took weeks to put together a fleet of subsea interference gear.
"In retrospect, it would clearly have been good to get it ready to go from day one," Hayward said. He said this was amazing that the industry "will undoubtedly be necessary to do and will probably be essential to have in the prospect."
The U.S. president Barack Obama, who noted a widespread "sense of despair" about the ongoing ecological disaster, was to go to the oil-slicked waters for the second time Friday to tax efforts.
"We will provide all resources needed to stop this," Obama promise on a solar panel maker in California. "We will not rest until this well is closed, the surroundings is repaired and cleanup is over."
The words were a little balm for the angry Gulf residents and elected representatives who have fishing and boating trip livelihoods are at stake.
They have gear to start a sand-dredging plan and build the fence islands to catch the oil.But federal officials will study weeks before they give consent.
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