BP Weighs 'Static Kill' on Capped Well

(July 20) -- BP is keeping its blown-out oil well capped for now, as engineers scramble to determine how damaging its new leaks are, and whether it's worth trying to plug them by pumping mud into the container in a tactic similar to one that failed back in May.

The new tactic is called a "static kill" or "bullheading," in which heavy drilling mud would be pumped down through the well's giant blowout preventer, then sealed with cement. It's similar to the "top kill" operation that failed nearly two months ago, because so much oil was still gushing out of the well that engineers couldn't pump mud down into it with enough force.

But now a tighter-fitting cap is holding most of that oil at bay, with only small leaks of oil and gas having emerged this past weekend. Pressure on the well's cap might be low enough for the mud to take hold, according to BP officials and retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is leading the U.S. government's oil spill response.

"There's some discussion that there might be some way to do a static pumping of mud into the top that would suppress the hydrocarbons," Allen told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse. But he stressed that plans are still being made, and that he's awaiting further analysis from BP. Two relief wells being drilled nearby remain the only ultimate fix, Allen said.

Those relief wells would tap into the same oil reservoir some 14,000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico's seabed, drilling down into the base of the well and plugging it with cement permanently. BP has said that would happen by mid-August, but now believes it could possibly happen quicker than planned.

Workers are now preparing to drill the final section of the relief well, which would intersect with the damaged well, BP senior vice president Kent Wells said, according to USA Today. It could happen by the end of the week, he said.

But BP ran another caveat on its website: "Although uncertainty remains, the first half of August remains the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will be completed and kill operations performed."

Drilling of the relief wells will continue regardless of any other tactics. But if the "static kill" operation is launched and if it is able to successfully halt all oil flow from the damaged well, that would make it easier to plug the gusher permanently using the two nearby relief wells, Wells told a briefing, according to The Washington Post.

Ever since a new 150,000-pound containment cap was lowered over the damaged well on Thursday, BP engineers and Obama administration officials have been anxiously watching the machinery's pressure gauges, to see if they indicate any new leaks from the cap or, more problematically, deep in the well casing underground.

The first sign of any problem came over the weekend, when oil and gas seepage was spotted on the sea floor less than two miles from the blown-out well. But Allen said it likely had nothing to do with the well, and that such leaks are common in areas where oil drilling occurs.

Then small amounts of oil and gas began escaping from the well's new cap late Sunday, but Allen said that the leaks were not "consequential," and that officials had decided not to remove the cap. On Monday, he said it would stay in place for another 24 hours -- until later today -- while more analysis is done.

Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons of crude have escaped into the gulf since April 20, when an explosion aboard a BP-leased rig killed 11 workers and triggered the worst oil spill in American history. Those figures are from U.S. government estimates reported by several news agencies. Even once the oil flow is stopped, the U.S. will have to contend with a monthslong -- and perhaps yearslong -- cleanup.

That impact on Americans' lives and economic livelihood, particularly along the Gulf Coast, is likely to be on the agenda today when British Prime Minister David Cameron visits the White House for the first time.

President Barack Obama has forcefully blamed the oil spill on BP, a huge British company that's seen as a pillar of the U.K. economy. Cameron has come under pressure to help ensure that BP doesn't collapse -- and pull down the British economy -- in the wake of the oil disaster.

In an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal today, Cameron underscored how the U.S. and British economies are linked, and called himself "unapologetically pro-America."

"Every aspect of our daily lives on either side of the Atlantic owes something to each other. Each day a million people in America go to work for British companies," the new Conservative prime minister wrote. "And a million people in Britain go to work for American companies."