Well Capped: Should BP Ever Be Allowed to Open It Again?

(Aug. 6) -- You'd think that after suffering the worst accidental oil spill in history, the rush to drill more new holes in the ocean would be tempered somewhat. But for an oil-addicted planet, simply turning away from the reserves still locked beneath BP's freshly sealed Macondo well may prove too difficult to endure.

With the cement from Thursday's static kill operation still not dry, questions are already arising about what will happen to one of the biggest oil discoveries in U.S. history.

As reported by The Associated Press, approximately 1.9 billion gallons of oil still remain in the well. That translates into a market price of $3.7 billion for any company that can successfully bring it to the surface.

BP might yet decide to extract that oil itself via its newly dug relief wells, or simply sell them to another company. According to company spokesman Scott Dean, no one has yet approached BP to try to purchase the relief wells.

The argument for extracting anew isn't as far-fetched as it might first sound. As USA Today points out, as a result of the disaster, oil companies and the U.S. government learned a great deal about sealing deep water wells, and stricter safety standards have been implemented by the Department of the Interior.

The industry, too, claims to be researching safer ways to drill, though actual results of their work aren't likely to be released for years and will always suffer the ultimate in confirmation bias: proving a negative, that the wells won't leak at some point in the future.

In any case, promises that drilling operations can be safely started up again at the Macondo well site are likely to fall on skeptical ears for some time.

"People died out there on that rig," local resident Linda Kaye Randolph told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "It isn't about the money. It would bother me that they're not respecting the people who died there."

Hot on HuffPost:

Now That the Well Is Capped, Should BP Ever Be Allowed to Open It Again?

Hot Leads

ON FACEBOOK

News From Our Partners

Also on AOL >>>

Depp's Dames

Alicia's Evolution

Lip-Sync Fun

They Hooked You