BP claims progress on new cap as oil spews in Gulf

NEW ORLEANS - Oil was largely uncontrolled spitting in the Gulf of Mexico, including BP crew claimed progress Sunday in the first stages of changing a flat cap with a new containment system they hope that eventually all rough and the catch from the busted.
There is no guarantee for such a delicate operation for almost a van fathoms below the surface of the water, officials said, and the continuing adjustment of the plug of the good from the bodem blijft planned for mid August.
"It will not only be your shell to set up, it's done. It is not like a cap on a toothpaste tube," Coast Guard spokesman Captain James McPherson said.
Robotic submarines from the CAP Saturday that was on top of the leak in early June to put the oil to absorb and vessels for collecting or burning the surface to send. BP is committed to delivering new, tighter cap in place as early as Monday and said that as of Sunday morning, the work went according to plan. BP hopes the capping operation will be done within three to six days.
Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said at a press conference Sunday morning, he was pleased with the progress, but warns that unforeseen bumps might lie ahead.
"We tried to work out the bugs as much as we can. The challenge will come up with something unexpected," says Wells.
If the tests show the new CAP, the pressure of the oil to resist and is working, the Gulf region could be most important piece of good news to get since the explosion on April 20 the BP leased Deepwater Horizon rigs, including 11 workers slain. Since then, between 88 million and 174 million liters of oil in the Gulf, according to federal estimates.
It would only be a temporary solution. Hope for the permanent closure of the leak is located with two relief wells, the first being completed in mid-August.
And the hurricane season, which lasts until November could interfere. There are no storms are expected today, but if one blows through the vessels to collect the oil may have to go and rough weather would spit in the water for days.
The work was closely followed in the White House, where President Barack Obama will be informed several times a day, adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
"We have every reason to believe that this will work," he said.
With the cover removed Saturday at 12:37 p.m. CDT, oil flowed freely in the water, except for a small percentage are collected by a pipe running to the Q4000 surface vessel with a capacity of about 378,000 liters. This ship should be joined by Helix Producer Sunday, more than double the capacity of Q4000.
But the delay would be long enough for up to 5 million liters of spring water is already polluted. Officials said 46 large skimmers were collected approximately 1 million liters of oil contaminated water from the surface above the well site from Saturday to Sunday.
The process began Saturday has two main phases: the removal of equipment currently on the top of the leak and to install new rigs are designed to fully contain the flow of oil.
BP on Sunday said that the success of the top flange, which had only partially completed the stamp with the old cap, almost a day earlier than a previous estimate away.
Now that the top flange is removed, BP is considering whether it should bind together two sections of drill pipe in the flowing well head. The step following the reduction of a 12-meter piece of equipment or a flange on the head coil transition and bumps and down.
After the coil is in place, the new CAP - a so-called capping stack or "Top Hat 10" - can be mounted. The apparatus, weighing about 150,000 pounds, is designed to completely seal the leak and connections for the new vessels on the surface for them to collect oil. The cap has valves that can restrict the flow of oil and shut him in, if it can withstand the enormous pressure.
That will be one of the key items for the officials to check, "said Paul Bommer, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
"If the new CAP is doing work and they closed the pit, it is possible that some of the well could break if the pressure inside builds up to an unacceptable value," Bommer said in an e-mail Saturday.
Ultimately, BP will have four vessels of oil within two or three weeks to install the new CAP. If the new CAP is not working, BP is ready to back up like the old on top of the leak site.
The company originally planned to bring the Helix Producer on the ground and the new cap at different times to install, but combined the two following estimates of rest again for about seven to 10 days.
The new ships will all be connected to the sprayer through flexible hoses allowing them to disconnect and sail away much faster in the event of a hurricane. Before the new lineup on the site, officials estimated they would need five days to delete everything prior to a storm, the new setup would be cut to two.
The government estimates 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons of oil per day, spitting out the pit, and the previous cap collected about 1 million liters of that. With the new CAP and the new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5-3.4 million liters - substantially all leaking oil, officials said.