Relief Well Unplugged, BP Readies Final 'Kill' Operation

(July 29) -- With a nearby relief well unplugged after a delay during Tropical Storm Bonnie, BP is preparing two final kill operations to stanch the flow from its damaged Deepwater Horizon oil well from top and bottom, hoping to begin sealing it permanently by early next week.

Engineers used underwater robots to remove a protective plug Wednesday from a relief well that was drilled to within 5 feet of the blown-out well, before Bonnie came along and halted progress. Now the relief well must be flushed out with drilling mud before it can connect to the damaged pipe -- a move government spill commander Thad Allen said should happen around Monday.

Once that's done, crews plan to attempt a "static kill," which involves pumping heavy drilling mud into a 150,000-pound containment cap atop the well, and then sealing it with cement. It's similar to a tactic that failed in May, the so-called "top kill," which BP tried to pull off while thousands of gallons of crude were still spewing out of the damaged well shaft. But now that the flow is greatly reduced, with only a few small leaks coming from the cap, engineers believe the tactic has a better chance of success.

Allen expressed optimism today that the well will be permanently sealed soon.

"The relief well, while it is deep, is something that has been done before," Allen said, according to CNN. "The technologies involved here are not novel, but obviously, the depth is a challenge here. But we are optimistic we will get this done."

His comments were echoed by BP's new CEO, Robert Dudley, slated to start his new job on Oct. 1.

"After Tropical Storm Bonnie, we are now beginning the process of putting in place manifolds to do this 'top kill' as early as Monday, and then we can follow with the relief well," Dudley told NPR. "There's no precision; there's nothing guaranteed. I'm hopeful and I do believe we've seen the end of oil flowing into the gulf."

The static kill won't work if there's a major leak in the well, and could even cause a small leak to rupture into a giant one. But Allen told CNN that a containment cap is bottling up most of the oil inside it, with no anomalies or breaches. Its latest pressure readings show 6,942 pounds per square inch -- a sign the well is structurally sound, he said.

"The static kill will go a long way from closing the well in, but the only way to kill the well is from the bottom," Allen said, according to The Associated Press.

So the "bottom kill" comes next. That process, which involves pumping the same kind of heavy mud into the well from deep underground via the relief well, then sealing that side with more cement, could take days or weeks.

Only then will America's worst-ever oil spill be held at its current size. According to the U.S. government's worst-case estimate, about 2.5 million gallons of oil have been spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico each day since an April 20 explosion killed 11 workers and triggered the spill. The oil slick has visibly spread over 2,700 miles of the gulf's surface, and nearly 30,000 workers have been involved in the response.

"I am an optimist," Dudley told NPR. "It's a very restorative body of water, and I'm not saying we're not going to be doing a lot over many years, but I have to be an optimist about the Gulf Coast."

About 60,000 square miles of gulf waters remain closed to fishing, and more than 600 miles of coastline across four U.S. states have been smeared with oil. And while the crude is in the process of vanishing from sight on the gulf waters, scientists say the fact that you can't see it doesn't mean that it won't have an impact.

Doug Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation, told CNN that the oil is now dispersed throughout the entire Gulf of Mexico ecosystem -- and will remain there for the foreseeable future.

"We have to recognize that most of it is still out there," he said. "The effects can last for decades."

It could be years before some beaches recover fully and are declared toxin-free, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Because of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, there have been nearly 10 times as many beach closings and public health advisories posted this year than in 2009, the report said.

Figuring out who should pay for all that damage and how to tally up claims at the federal, state and local levels is itself a process that could take 10 years, according to Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

"I don't think there is any question that we're talking about billions of dollars in remedial action," the authority's chairman, Garret Graves, told The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans.

Litigation is mounting as well. A panel of federal judges is scheduled to meet in Idaho today to consider arguments about where lawsuits over the Deepwater Horizon disaster should be consolidated. New Orleans and Houston are emerging as likely centers for litigation, because of their proximity to oil companies and workers involved in the cleanup, CNN reported.

BP could even face litigation from rival oil companies that were forced to suspend production in the Gulf of Mexico following the spill, Reuters reported.

Shell estimated that it would reduce production by 3 million barrels this year as a result of the ban on offshore drilling in the wake of the disaster. The company has not ruled out trying to claim damages from BP.