Robot Subs Dispatched to Gulf for Oil Rig Leak

BATON ROUGE, La. (April 26) -- A fleet of robotic submarines is leading efforts to plug an oil well that's spewing crude oil at the Gulf of Mexico's seabed, nearly a mile below the water's surface, although officials conceded the operation might not work.

At least four remote-controlled subs are being used in an attempt to shut off the well that's been flowing oil since a drilling platform collapsed and sank into the gulf last week, about 50 miles from the Louisiana coast, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said. The rig's explosion on Tuesday left 11 of the rig's workers missing and presumed dead.

The subs -- known as "remotely operated vehicles" -- are roughly the size of pickup trucks and are controlled by men in boats on the surface of the water who manipulate the undersea vessels with joystick-like gadgets. The subs are equipped with high-powered spotlights, still and video cameras, clamps and diamond-edged saws, said Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane University Energy Institute in New Orleans.

"They're like big video games," Smith told AOL News. "They can do just about anything a man could do if you could get a man to that depth -- which you can't."

Success with the subs would be the ideal outcome and could plug the leaking pipe by Tuesday, officials said.

But Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production at BP, conceded the operation might fail.

"Progress continues, but this is a very challenging work environment," Suttles said at a news conference today in Robert, La.

An alternate plan would be far more time-consuming: stopping the flow of oil by drilling one or more "relief wells" that would intersect with the leaking well and seal it with concrete at 18,000 feet below the water's surface. The relief well operation -- which is already in its early stages, with two drilling platforms en route -- could take months to stop the flow of oil, Suttles said.

One of those drilling platforms is expected to be in place today, the Coast Guard said. Suttles said BP, which is leasing the rig, also would have its final permits filed for the relief wells today.

A third part of BP's attempt to contain the flow of oil is construction of a container that could be lowered over the leaking pipeline, so that the oil could be collected and funneled up to a platform on the gulf's surface. Suttles said it would take at least two weeks to make and deploy that container -- an operation that has succeeded in stemming other oil leaks, but not at such a great depth.

"This hasn't been done in 5,000 feet of water before," he said.

The Coast Guard said the "sheen" of oil on the surface of the gulf has grown to 48 by 39 miles. The spill is 30 miles off Louisiana's marshy coast, the Coast Guard said, threatening wildlife and the region's seafood industry with disaster.

Weather forecasts indicate the sheen will not strike the coast during the next three days, said Charlie Henry, an environmental scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

About 1,152 barrels -- or 48,384 gallons -- of oily water have been collected so far, the Coast Guard said. Seven skimming vessels are collecting the oil-water mix, and 21,340 feet of a containment boom are in place, the Coast Guard said.

As a precaution, Louisiana has begun protecting fragile ecosystems with booms in an attempt to block the spill from drifting ashore, Landry said. She said the Guard was also in contact with Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, whose coastlines could be threatened if the spill drifts eastward.

The well is pumping about 1,000 barrels of oil -- 42,000 gallons -- into the gulf per day, according to the Coast Guard. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 -- the nation's worst oil disaster -- spilled 11 million gallons.

The cause of the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon platform, owned by the Swiss company Transocean Ltd., remains unknown. Adrian Rose, a Transocean vice president, said the company has not yet decided whether it would attempt to retrieve all or part of the sunken rig.