BP Weighs New Way to Kill Gulf Well
By Ben Casselman, Susan Daker and Angel Gonzalez, The Wall Street Journal.
BP PLC was Monday considering yet another method to kill its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well amid concerns that the cap it installed last week could be allowing oil and gas to seep out the sides.
Meanwhile, a federal panel investigating the disaster heard that the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig suffered a series of power outages and seized-up computers in the months before it exploded.
BP’s new containment cap has stopped the flow of oil since Thursday, but with the well now sealed at the top, government officials are worried that oil and gas could now be escaping elsewhere.
Pressure tests have been inconclusive, but BP says the reservoir has depleted to the point where the company could use a new method of closing off the well by pumping heavy drilling fluid into the top, an operation similar to the “top kill” procedure that failed in May.
If successful, the procedure (called a “static kill”) could kill the well permanently more quickly than the relief wells that BP is drilling, which have long been seen as the only permanent solution to what is now one of the worst-ever environmental disasters in the U.S.
But few of BP’s attempts to staunch the flow of oil have gone according to plan since its drilling rig exploded . In a letter to BP on Monday, Thad Allen, urged the company to keep its focus on the relief wells, which are due to be completed by mid August.
BP will be making a decision about pursuing the option over the next couple of days, said Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP. The company still intends to drill the relief well even if it proceeds with the newest plan, called a static kill, to confirm that the leaking well is dead. The first of two relief wells is currently “looking directly” at the well, and will be able to intersect it at the end of July, Mr. Wells said.
Oil-spill responders detected leaks around the cap and about two miles from the well. The leak around the cap may not be “significant,” according to Adm. Allen, although it is causing a formation of hydrates, crystal-like compounds that indicate the presence of oil or gas. The seafloor leak, discovered during seismic testing and sonar analysis, is believed to be unrelated to the well cap, Adm. Allen said.
BP has been working for 13 weeks to contain the gusher, which at one point was spewing up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
Also Monday, a federal investigative panel turned its attention to BP’s contractors on the rig attached to the well, the Deepwater Horizon.
The rig’s chief engineer, Stephen Bertone, testified during a panel hearing in Kenner, La., that the Deepwater Horizon suffered a series of maintenance problems in the months before the well exploded.
The revelations by the engineer could prompt new scrutiny of Transocean Ltd., the offshore drilling giant that owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon rig.
Mr. Bertone, a Transocean employee, told investigators that the Deepwater Horizon had lost power completely one time and had lost some power on several other occasions before the disaster. It also had had problems with one of its thrusters, an engine that helps hold the rig in place above the well, for roughly eight months before the incident.
A key computer used to monitor drilling operations had frozen repeatedly, Mr. Bertone said, although a new hard drive apparently resolved the problem. He also said that he and a subordinate had requested more workers to help with maintenance. He didn’t say whether he got the help he asked for, but said he didn’t believe maintenance problems contributed to the disaster on April 20.
Transocean said the Deepwater Horizon was properly staffed and maintained and had a strong safety record in recent years.
Investigators have identified more than 20 “anomalies” in the rig’s last two days that could have contributed to the disaster, according to a document written by the panel’s investigators and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
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