So, Is the Oil Spill Fixed Now? What the New Containment Cap Will and Won't Do

(July 13) -- Halfway through BP's latest and greatest attempt to un-spill the Gulf oil spill, Surge Desk answers six questions about the status of the operation.

1. Is the oil spill capped?
Maybe. The Top Hat 10 was latched onto the leaking well by 8:00 p.m. EDT last night. But BP is now in the process of testing the well. The test will last anywhere from six to 48 hours.

1. And if the new cap works, is the oil spill fixed?
Not quite. The "Top Hat 10" should collect most -- if not all -- of the leaking oil, but it's only a method of collecting the gushing oil. It will not plug the leak itself.

3. So then when will the oil spill be fixed?
The U.S. Coast Guard estimates the well won't be fully plugged up until mid-August, when it is successfully breached by one of two relief wells now in progress. Heavy drilling mud and cement will be pumped from those wells into the leaking well below the damaged pipe to plug the leak.

4. What's the purpose of the tests on the new cap?
BP will shut off all the valves on the capping stack, effectively stopping the release of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20. Scientists will then monitor the pressure on the well: If it rises, they will conclude that the well is intact and could decide to keep the valves shut off; if the well pressure is low, it will indicate that the well is damaged and that the oil and gas could be leaking into the rock surrounding the well. In that case, the valves will be opened again so as not to cause more damage to the well, the New York Times reports.

5. How much oil will the new containment cap collect?
If the valves on the new cap have to be opened after the tests this week, the new containment system will still collect more than 60,000 barrels a day, the current high-end estimate of the amount of oil gushing from the well. But that capacity won't be reached for a few weeks, when more ships can be brought to the site to collect the extra oil.

6. How much oil is being collected now?
During the test, oil collection operations on the Q4000 and the Helix Producer 1 floating platform will be shut down. Yesterday, approximately 8,300 barrels of oil were collected. Containment operations before July 10th when the old containment cap was removed were collecting around 15,000 barrels of oil a day.

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