BP%u2019s New Gulf Oil Spill Cap: What%u2019s Different This Time?

(July 9) -- Three months and some 86 million gallons of crude later, the Gulf oil spill is finally on the verge of being contained, according to statements today from U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, reports The Associated Press.

"Technically it's pretty achievable," Allen said, although he also cautioned that there is a big difference between containing the leak --i.e., collecting all the leaking oil as it is released from the well but before it enters the Gulf -- and actually stopping it entirely, which will not happen until the drilling of two additional relief wells is completed.

And yet, in a strange bout of what would be appear to be unprecedented good fortune, that operation is also said to be ahead of schedule, and may be finished by late this month, beating the initially-proposed August deadline.

Of course, this is hardly the first time that a clear fix to the worst oil spill in U.S. history has been teased. The laundry list of proposed solutions that have been attempted and abandoned in the weeks following the April 20th explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform -- everything from lowering a giant containment dome over the well to shooting junk at it, all of it to little or no avail, while people and animals in the Gulf region suffered the catastrophic effects -- is long indeed.

That raises an all-important question: Just what is so different about the situation this time that makes Allen so confident?

Surge Desk takes a look:

1. New Containment Cap -- The third such containment cap to be installed on the busted blowout preventer since BP attempted its Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) system at the beginning of June, the new device is said to fit tighter over the sheared pipe, allowing less oil to escape. There's a big caveat though, as first the old (second) cap will have to be removed, which will temporarily allow the full force of the oil flow back into the Gulf for at least three days. The Gulf response team has a plan for compensating for that (see below), and once the cap is in place, it should "function as a valve that can help shut in the runaway well," reports Oil & Gas Journal.

2. The Helix Producer 1 -- What BusinessWeek describes as a "a floating platform which alone can process as much as 25,000 barrels daily and can easily be disconnected in case of a hurricane," is expected to be hooked up to the well and functioning by Saturday. The property of Helix Energy Solutions Group, the Helix Producer 1 is actually a reconverted ferry boat formally known as the MV Karl Stevens. As Oil Online noted while it was still under reconstruction, "Even in its unfinished state, HP1 looks considerably different than it did in its earlier incarnation as the MV Karl Carstens, an ice-class train ferry formerly stationed in the Baltic Sea." The Helix Producer now appears ready to make its big debut in the Gulf.

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BP's New Gulf Oil Spill Cap: What's Different This Time?

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