BP: Cap on gushing well removed, oil flows freely

Robotic submarines removed the cap from the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, beginning a period of at least two days when oil will flow freely into the sea.

It’s the first step in placing a tighter dome that is supposed to funnel more oil to collection ships on the surface a mile above. If all goes according to plan, the tandem of the tighter cap and the surface ships could keep all the oil from polluting the fragile Gulf as soon as Monday.

BP spokesman Mark Proegler said the old cap was removed at 12:37 p.m. CDT on Saturday.

"Over the next four to seven days, depending on how things go, we should get that sealing cap on. That’s our plan," said Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president.

It would be only a temporary solution to the catastrophe unleashed by a drilling rig explosion nearly 12 weeks ago. It won’t plug the busted well and it remains uncertain that it will succeed.

The oil is flowing mostly unabated into the water for about 48 hours — long enough for as much as 5 million gallons to gush out — until the new cap is installed.

source: www.bostonherald.com...=home&position=recent

F BP!
STOP DESTROYING OUR PLANET!!

What doesn't make sense. Is why would they choose this new cap when they are so close to finishing those relief wells. Now that the gusher will be free flowing for 4-7 days if all goes well I hope a hurricane don't come.

reply to post by Ophiuchus13


I'm sure it's because they know the relief wells won't do anything except add more leaking wells to the Gulf.

Anything more than 24 hours between removing one and completing installation of another cap sounds ridiculous to me or intentional. Why remove it on a Saturday if you aren't going to do anything before Monday? Just one more of many things not making sense.

I viewed the feeds about an hour ago and not one feed was showing the gusher. Going to go have another look now.

Well I see they are wire brushing the BOP upper flange. This I assume is to prep for welding or something. I don't know. The last time I saw them wire brushing was early on in the leak...they were erasing the manufacturer's name from the BOP.