BP Containment Dome Sets Out to Cap Oil Gusher

BATON ROUGE, La. (May 5) -- A massive metal container, built to collect the oil that is feeding the Gulf of Mexico spill, started its journey today to the site of the leaking well. BP also managed to plug one of three holes in the pipe that is pumping crude from the seafloor, though officials said that patch has not slowed the flow of oil.

Coast Guard officials said they also planned a burn-off of crude oil today from the surface of the water, the first planned burn since a successful test a week ago. BP officials have said they hope up to 42,000 gallons could be consumed in each burn-off.

The 100-ton dome left from Port Fourchon, La., at midday. It was designed to be lowered over the leaking well, collect oil and funnel it to a vessel 5,000 feet above, on the surface of the gulf, BP officials said.

Officials downplayed expectations that the operation would go off without hitches, considering it will take place a mile below the gulf's surface, in darkness and under enormous water pressure.

"We are all hoping that this containment system will work, but I want to remind everyone that this containment system is the first of its kind to be used in 5,000 feet of water," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said.

If there are no major delays, the system could be ready on Monday, BP executive Doug Suttles said. He described the container as "essentially a very, very large metal building" that will be lowered on a cable over the leak that is responsible for 85 percent of the oil flowing into the gulf.

BP used underwater robots to put a valve over one of three oil leaks, then sealed that leak by closing the valve, Petty Officer David Mosley said. But the flow of oil, estimated at 210,000 gallons daily, continues from two other leaks, Mosley said.

The volume of the leak is one of many unknown variables in the disaster that stems from the April 20 explosion and the sinking two days later of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, about 50 miles off Louisiana's coast. The blast, which killed 11 men on the rig, triggered the leaks from a well a mile below the gulf's surface. Oil has been flowing for the past two weeks, feeding a growing slick.

BP engineers noted several concerns about the container operation, partly because of high pressure and temperatures as low as 42 degrees at the seafloor. David Clarkson, a BP vice president, said computer models showed that ice could form inside the pipe connected to the vessel, possibly clogging the passage to the surface. He said methanol would be pumped into the pipe as a form of antifreeze, keeping the pipe warm enough so ice would not form.

About 100 miles of boom are now lining the Gulf Coast, officials said, in an attempt to block the oil's advance to shore and limit the environmental damage in sensitive areas from Louisiana to Florida.

For now, forecasts show that winds from the north should keep the oil slick from hitting the Gulf Coast through Friday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Clear weather allowed BP to operate its fleet of oil-skimming boats and airplanes that are dumping chemical oil dispersants onto the gulf.

NOAA also said today that officials do not believe oil caused the deaths of 37 sea turtles that have washed onto the coast in recent days. The agency said there are a number of possible reasons for the deaths: natural causes, algal blooms, fishing nets, shrimp trawls and vessel strikes.

"NOAA and its partners have conducted 10 necropsies so far -- none of the 10 turtles showed evidence of oil, externally or internally," Barbara Schroeder, NOAA's national sea turtle coordinator, said in a news release.

BP began drilling Monday on the first of two relief wells intended to seal off the flow of oil from the well -- an effort that officials said would take three months.

Suttles said experts are analyzing data from experimental underwater distribution of the dispersants. The last test of that operation ended Tuesday and won't resume before the analysis is done, he said.

The New York Times reported that attorneys general from the five Gulf Coast states are drafting a letter to BP that will lay out demands. In the letter, they are expected to urge BP specifically to define what is meant by its repeated statement that it intends to pay "legitimate" claims from coastal residents and businesses affected by the spill. Alabama Attorney General Troy King said that phrase was too vague.

The attorneys general are expected to press for a fund to begin paying out claims to state and local governments and to residents.

BP said today it has awarded $25 million block grants to the four states most affected by the spill, to help them pay for materials and to block the oil from coming ashore, and for cleaning it up.

King said the block grants are "not going to be enough."