http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/us/03spill.html?src=mv
Latest Effort to Stop Oil Flow Hits a Snag
BP, via Reuters
Oil continued to flow as technicians attempted a repair at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico in this image taken from a BP live video feed on Tuesday.
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and JOSEPH BERGER
Published: June 2, 2010
HOUMA, La. — The latest attempt to contain the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico hit a snag Wednesday when a diamond-tipped saw operated by an underwater robot got stuck in the riser pipe it was intended to slice off, federal officials said.
The snared saw set back efforts to seal the stricken well that, since a drilling rig explosion on April 20, has been spewing thousands of gallons of oil into the gulf and fouling beaches, shellfish and birds on the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is commanding the federal response to the oil spill, said the necessary cut will be made, either by the temporarily snared saw or by another saw brought in to replace it. Once the cut is made, a containment dome can be lowered into place to capture most of the oil flow and send it up to a tanker on the surface.
“I don’t think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut,” Admiral Allen said at a press conference here. “It’s about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it.”
He cautioned again, however, that this so-called cut-and-cap effort could increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent until the containment dome is snugly in place.
The attempt to stem the flow of oil was proceeding as the Obama administration began a civil and criminal investigation into the spill, a deepening crisis that threatens to define President Obama’s second year in office. President Obama is expected to address the latest developments Wednesday afternoon in remarks at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
In excerpts of a draft of those remarks released by the White House, the president said “the time has come, once and for all, for this nation to embrace a clean energy future,” that includes more energy efficient cars and homes, more nuclear power plants, and roll backs of tax breaks to oil companies. The Gulf disaster, he said, “may prove to be the result of human error -- or corporations taking dangerous short cuts that compromised safety,” but the nation “must acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, risks that are bound to increase the harder oil extraction becomes.”
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in New Orleans Tuesday that he planned to “prosecute to the fullest extent of the law” any person or entity that the Justice Department determines has broken the law in connection with the oil spill. The London-based oil giant will be trying to reassure investors that the cost of cleaning up the oil spill is manageable and will not have an impact on dividends, British media reported. Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive is expected to tell investors that the cost, estimated at $1 billion, can be absorbed by cash generated from its operation around the world.
“If our current efforts were to fail and we have to wait for the relief wells to be drilled and had six months of clean-up, we estimate the cost at $3 billion,” Mr. Hayward told the Daily Mail. He noted that cost would be offset by the company’s strong performance which should generate cash flows of $7.5 to $8 billion.
On Wall Street Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 120 points shortly after Mr. Holder’s announcement, as energy stocks tumbled; BP lost 15 percent of its market value during the day’s trading. But on Wednesday, BP and the broader index both traded higher in the morning.
BP and government officials said flatly for the first time on Tuesday that they had abandoned any further plans to try to plug the well, and would instead try to siphon the leaking oil and gas to the surface until relief wells can stop the flow, which probably could not be achieved before late August.
The current strategy is to fit a containment cap over the leak and funnel oil up through a riser pipe to a ship on the surface. For this procedure to work, the original riser, the pipe that once ran from the wellhead up to the drilling rig and now lies broken and snaking along the sea floor, must be sheared off.
One cut has already been made in the riser, farther from the wellhead, to alleviate pressure. But another cut needs to be made at the point where the riser leaves the blowout preventer, the stack of valves sitting on the wellhead whose failure created what is now regarded by federal officials as the largest environmental disaster in modern America history.
The effectiveness of the procedure depends on how closely that cut can be made. The more water that mixes with the oil as it flows out of the cut pipe, the more likely it will be that ice crystals will form, blocking the flow. A closer cut would allow a cap to fit snugly over the leak, keeping the influx of frigid water to a minimum.
Campbell Robertson reported from Houma and Joseph Berger from New York.
Latest Effort to Stop Oil Flow Hits a Snag
BP, via Reuters
Oil continued to flow as technicians attempted a repair at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico in this image taken from a BP live video feed on Tuesday.
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and JOSEPH BERGER
Published: June 2, 2010
HOUMA, La. — The latest attempt to contain the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico hit a snag Wednesday when a diamond-tipped saw operated by an underwater robot got stuck in the riser pipe it was intended to slice off, federal officials said.
The snared saw set back efforts to seal the stricken well that, since a drilling rig explosion on April 20, has been spewing thousands of gallons of oil into the gulf and fouling beaches, shellfish and birds on the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. But Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is commanding the federal response to the oil spill, said the necessary cut will be made, either by the temporarily snared saw or by another saw brought in to replace it. Once the cut is made, a containment dome can be lowered into place to capture most of the oil flow and send it up to a tanker on the surface.
“I don’t think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut,” Admiral Allen said at a press conference here. “It’s about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it.”
He cautioned again, however, that this so-called cut-and-cap effort could increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent until the containment dome is snugly in place.
The attempt to stem the flow of oil was proceeding as the Obama administration began a civil and criminal investigation into the spill, a deepening crisis that threatens to define President Obama’s second year in office. President Obama is expected to address the latest developments Wednesday afternoon in remarks at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
In excerpts of a draft of those remarks released by the White House, the president said “the time has come, once and for all, for this nation to embrace a clean energy future,” that includes more energy efficient cars and homes, more nuclear power plants, and roll backs of tax breaks to oil companies. The Gulf disaster, he said, “may prove to be the result of human error -- or corporations taking dangerous short cuts that compromised safety,” but the nation “must acknowledge that there are inherent risks to drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, risks that are bound to increase the harder oil extraction becomes.”
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in New Orleans Tuesday that he planned to “prosecute to the fullest extent of the law” any person or entity that the Justice Department determines has broken the law in connection with the oil spill. The London-based oil giant will be trying to reassure investors that the cost of cleaning up the oil spill is manageable and will not have an impact on dividends, British media reported. Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive is expected to tell investors that the cost, estimated at $1 billion, can be absorbed by cash generated from its operation around the world.
“If our current efforts were to fail and we have to wait for the relief wells to be drilled and had six months of clean-up, we estimate the cost at $3 billion,” Mr. Hayward told the Daily Mail. He noted that cost would be offset by the company’s strong performance which should generate cash flows of $7.5 to $8 billion.
On Wall Street Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 120 points shortly after Mr. Holder’s announcement, as energy stocks tumbled; BP lost 15 percent of its market value during the day’s trading. But on Wednesday, BP and the broader index both traded higher in the morning.
BP and government officials said flatly for the first time on Tuesday that they had abandoned any further plans to try to plug the well, and would instead try to siphon the leaking oil and gas to the surface until relief wells can stop the flow, which probably could not be achieved before late August.
The current strategy is to fit a containment cap over the leak and funnel oil up through a riser pipe to a ship on the surface. For this procedure to work, the original riser, the pipe that once ran from the wellhead up to the drilling rig and now lies broken and snaking along the sea floor, must be sheared off.
One cut has already been made in the riser, farther from the wellhead, to alleviate pressure. But another cut needs to be made at the point where the riser leaves the blowout preventer, the stack of valves sitting on the wellhead whose failure created what is now regarded by federal officials as the largest environmental disaster in modern America history.
The effectiveness of the procedure depends on how closely that cut can be made. The more water that mixes with the oil as it flows out of the cut pipe, the more likely it will be that ice crystals will form, blocking the flow. A closer cut would allow a cap to fit snugly over the leak, keeping the influx of frigid water to a minimum.
Campbell Robertson reported from Houma and Joseph Berger from New York.
