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BP: 'Top kill' has failed to stop the oil
GRAND ISLE, La., (UPI) -- The "top kill" tactic for plugging the well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico has failed, a BP official said Saturday in Louisiana.
Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, speaking at a news conference in Grand Isle, said the company will try to install a device known as a Top Hat, the Miami Herald reported. Robots working 5,000 feet below the surface will be used to remove parts of the damaged well and put a containment system over the well.
Suttles said the entire procedure should take four to seven days.
As much as 19,000 barrels of oil a day has been flowing into the Gulf since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform. Experts say that if it remains uncapped the flow could continue for seven years until the estimated 50 million barrels in the Macondo oil deposit are gone.
"This scares everybody -- the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing," Suttles said.
The "top kill" method involves a combination of heavy drilling mud with shredded tires and golf balls pushed into the blowout preventer. BP began pumping mud Wednesday.
An explosion on the drilling platform 40 days ago killed 11 employees.
BP's last resort would be to drill a relief well, removing enough pressure to cap the open one. That would take at least 60 days, and 2 million barrels of oil would have spilled.
GRAND ISLE, La., (UPI) -- The "top kill" tactic for plugging the well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico has failed, a BP official said Saturday in Louisiana.
Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, speaking at a news conference in Grand Isle, said the company will try to install a device known as a Top Hat, the Miami Herald reported. Robots working 5,000 feet below the surface will be used to remove parts of the damaged well and put a containment system over the well.
Suttles said the entire procedure should take four to seven days.
As much as 19,000 barrels of oil a day has been flowing into the Gulf since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform. Experts say that if it remains uncapped the flow could continue for seven years until the estimated 50 million barrels in the Macondo oil deposit are gone.
"This scares everybody -- the fact that we can't make this well stop flowing," Suttles said.
The "top kill" method involves a combination of heavy drilling mud with shredded tires and golf balls pushed into the blowout preventer. BP began pumping mud Wednesday.
An explosion on the drilling platform 40 days ago killed 11 employees.
BP's last resort would be to drill a relief well, removing enough pressure to cap the open one. That would take at least 60 days, and 2 million barrels of oil would have spilled.