BP Plc sheared away the riser from its leaking Gulf of Mexico well, a precursor to the company’s attempt to lower a cap that
would divert oil to ships on the surface.
Setting a device on the leak to capture oil will take a “couple of hours,” U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a press
conference today in Metairie, Louisiana. Cutting away the riser allows London-based BP to mount a cap on top of the blowout
preventer, a five-story tall stack of safety valves.
It also means the oil leak is no longer constrained by kinks that formed when the riser, consisting of pipe and fittings that
connected the well to the drilling rig, broke off the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 and sank two days later. Any
potential boost in the leak rate because of the cut is unknown, Allen said.
White House energy adviser Carol Browner said on May 30 that cutting away the riser may result in as much as a 20 percent
increase in oil flowing from the well. That increase would bring the spill rate to between 14,400 barrels a day to 22,800 barrels a
day, based on prior government estimates of the flow.
BP yesterday removed a diamond-blade saw after it got stuck during an attempt to make a finer cut on the well’s riser. The
company used a “massive pair of scissors” to shear off the pipes, according to Robert Wine, a BP spokesman. The rougher cut
may lead to a looser fit and a higher rate of oil leakage between the blowout preventer and the cap, Allen said.
‘Jagged’ Seal
“We could be lucky and there could be close to none, there could be some, I don’t think we know until we see how the seal fits
with the more jagged cut,” Allen said. Oil could escape if pressure from the water at 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) below the surface
doesn’t help to seal the area between the blowout preventer and cap, he said.
“I’m still very optimistic they will be able to collect 80 percent to 90 percent of the oil,” said Nansen Saleri, chief executive officer of
Quantum Reservoir Impact in Houston, a consulting firm that helps oil companies increase production. “It’s much better to go
with solutions that, if not 100 percent, at least mitigate some of the damage.”
Saleri was previously chief of reservoir management for Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company.
BP rose 2.5 pence to 432.25 at 4:35 p.m. in London. The shares have fallen 34 percent since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig
exploded, killing 11 workers and causing the leak.
Ratings Cuts
Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings today cut BP’s debt ratings one level because of concerns the spill’s costs could
hurt the company’s balance sheet. The company said June 1 that it has spent $990 million on the leak.
The biggest oil spill in U.S. history has soiled about 140 miles (225 kilometers) of coastline, halted new exploratory deep-water
drilling in the Gulf and shut down a third of its fishing areas.
The Financial Times today quoted Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward as saying in an interview that it is “an entirely fair
criticism” that BP wasn’t fully prepared for an oil leak in deep water.
The company failed in its first effort to capture oil using a 40-foot-tall containment box from the well about a mile under water. BP
removed a tube that was capturing a portion of the flow when it began its failed effort last week to stop the leak using drilling mud
and cement.
BP and government officials have given up trying to plug the well earlier than August, when an emergency relief well can intercept
the damaged hole, Allen said on June 1. |
