BP claims to be slowing flow of oil into Mexican GulfSmall tube inserted into fractured pipe is capturing 1,000 barrels a day – but far larger amounts are still pouring into sea
BP has claimed its first success in stemming the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico after almost a month of trying.
The company said that it would now be able to capture 1,000 barrels of oil a day after inserting a small tube into the end of the broken pipeline lying on the seabed.
Official estimates put the spill at 5,000 barrels of oil a day, but some scientists say the spill could be as much as 100,000 barrels daily. BP says there is no way to measure it accurately.
BP began funnelling some of the leaking oil and gas using the tube yesterday. The tube, 4 inches in diameter, has been inserted into the 21-inch diameter pipeline.
A BP spokesman said the company hoped later this week to divert more than the 1,000 barrels of oil per day now envisaged. He said the ramp-up would be slow to prevent the build-up of crystal-like gas hydrates, which have hampered previous efforts to stem the flow. He did not give the maximum amount the tube could divert and BP released a statement cautioning that this was a new technology, so "both its continued operation and its effectiveness in capturing the oil and gas remain uncertain". BP is storing the captured oil in vessels on the surface and flaring the gas.
The company said it hoped to stop the leak entirely when it attempts to re-activate the blow-out preventer (BOP), which failed to shut down the well, as designed, in a week. BP engineers working in a crisis centre at the company's US headquarters in Houston say they assume each attempt to stem the flow will fail, so always have an alternative plan. Chief operating officer Doug Suttles told the US news channel CNN: "We're throwing absolutely everything at this."
Journalists ringing BP's general press inquiry number in the US for information about the disaster are greeted with a recording asking for anyone with "suggestions about possible technical solutions" to get in touch.
Concern is also growing that vast plumes of oil are forming beneath the surface, creating huge "dead zones" where marine life cannot survive. BP has pumped more than 500,000 gallons of chemical dispersant into the sea, much of it at the source of the leak. Scientists say these unprecedented quantities of dispersant are preventing most of the oil from reaching the surface but could be making the pollution worse.
BP staff involved in the oil spill response operation are providing conflicting accounts of the effects of the dispersant. Ian Cavanagh, vice-president for subsea, surface and wells and one of BP's leadership team directing the response based in Houma in Louisiana, told the Guardian last week that the effect of the dispersant was to break the oil down into smaller and smaller separate molecules until they dispersed into the eco-system.
But Melanie Bell, operations team leader with oversight of the near shore booming and shoreline clean-up operations in the Venice area, said that the dispersant, oil and water were forming jelly-like blobs, which were washing up on the shore. A BP spokesman admitted that dispersant, which toxicologists liken to very strong detergent, is less effective if it comes into contact with oil that has already been in water for several days.
The chief executive of the British oil company, Tony Hayward, sparked controversy last week when he told the Guardian that the amount of leaking oil and dispersant used were "relatively tiny" compared with the "very big ocean" of the Gulf of Mexico.
The faulty BOP has been subpoenaed by US investigators. BP has been taking images of the device using underwater robots, which it believes will exonerate it of any blame for the accident, which is on course to surpass the Exxon Valdez spill as the worst oil disaster in US history. Even when the well is shut down, BP says it will take three or four months to bring the 450 tonne BOP to shore to be examined properly.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Monday, May 17th 2010 at 5:15PM
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