BP May Have Already Plugged Oil Well for Good

(Aug. 13) -- Analysis of pressure tests on BP's cemented Gulf of Mexico oil well could indicate today that the damaged well is already plugged for good, and that a relief well won't be needed after all.

For more than three months, BP has been drilling two relief wells near the Deepwater Horizon disaster, to intercept the damaged well shaft deep under the sea floor and plug it with heavy mud and cement. One of the wells reached within 30 feet of the problem well, before drilling was temporarily called off earlier this week, as a tropical depression swept through the gulf.

Now officials say they might not even need to resume. They're reviewing results of pressure tests conducted on Thursday, which will be ready within 24 hours. The tests should be able to tell whether the so-called "bottom kill" is still needed.

Engineers have already done the same to the top of the damaged well, first capping it with a containment device and then plugging it with mud and cement. But that operation last month, dubbed the "static kill," was intended to be only temporary, followed by a "bottom kill" involving the relief well.

"A bottom kill finishes this well. The question is whether it's already been done with the static kill," retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's oil spill point person, told reporters on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

During the static kill, engineers aren't sure whether the mud and cement they pumped into the 13,000-foot pipe ended up looping around the bottom of the well and back up into the annulus, a space between the outside of the well pipe and the jagged sides of the bedrock through which the well was drilled.

If it did, pumping more mud and cement into the well from the bottom, via a relief well, wouldn't be necessary. In fact, it could be risky, and even trigger a comparatively small leak of about 1,000 barrels of oil believed to be trapped inside the annulus, the Houston Chronicle reported. That's what the pressure tests are trying to determine.

"We may be the victims of our own success here," Allen said, according to The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. "If the cement is already there, it would obviate the need to do the bottom kill."

Allen has scheduled a news conference in Schriever, La., this afternoon to update the public on the results of the pressure tests. The bottom kill had been scheduled to begin today or Saturday, but this week's storm pushed the timing back to between Sunday and Tuesday -- if it's conducted at all.

More than 200 million gallons of oil have spewed into the gulf since an April 20 explosion aboard a BP-leased rig killed 11 workers and triggered America's worst-ever oil spill. According to U.S. government estimates, the Deepwater Horizon disaster is also the world's largest accidental oil spill.

Alabama's attorney general filed two lawsuits in federal court late Thursday, seeking damages from BP and other companies linked to the spill. In the court filings, Attorney General Troy King accuses BP of damaging Alabama's coastline and economy through "negligent or wanton failure to adhere to recognized industry standards," the AP reported. A BP spokesman said the company had no comment.

In another development unrelated to the Deepwater Horizon spill, BP has agreed to pay a record $50.6 million fine for safety violations at a Texas oil refinery where a 2005 explosion killed 15 workers. In a statement on its website, BP acknowledged settling the case with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration but called complaints against the company "allegations" that it contested.

"BP contested the citations and maintains that the refinery has undertaken extensive actions to enhance worker safety since 2005," it said. The settlement also stipulates that BP will invest another $500 million to upgrade safety conditions for workers at the Texas City refinery, about 40 miles southeast of Houston.

Even though the fine BP is paying in the Texas case is a mere fraction of its cleanup costs from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it's still the largest penalty in the history of OSHA, according to The Washington Post.

"The size of the penalty rightly reflects BP's disregard for workplace safety and shows that we will enforce the law so workers can return home safe at the end of their day," Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis told the paper.