Final Well Kill May Begin This Week

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

In his daily operational update Monday, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen told reporters that “the job before us now is to finish the relief well… and then seal the well with cement from the bottom up. That will, in our view, at that point, permanently kill the well.”

“We expect that some time towards the end of the week we’ll be in a position to intercept the annulus and commence the kill,” he said.

In the meantime, the response team is moving forward, focusing their attention on cleaning the beaches and wetlands impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Over the next week, Allen will be meeting with local leaders and parish presidents along the coast to coordinate a stronger local response.

Allen: Static Kill Completed, Moving On To Finish Relief Wells

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen provided an update via teleconference, Friday, on BP and the Coast Guard’s newest developments in finishing up the highly praised “static kill,” which has now successfully filled a large portion of the casing pipe of the deepwater Macondo oil well, responsible for the deaths of 11 rig workers and nearly 5 million barrels of sweet Louisiana crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, with heavy drilling mud, and now cement. 

Ret. Admiral Allen told the press that BP has now injected a layer of fluid on top of the cement, and a layer of drilling mud on top of that. The static kill has essentially ensured that no more oil will leak from the Macondo well, said Allen on Thursday.  The team will now begin pressure testing to keep track of the curing of the cement.

“We are unequivocally committed to completing the relief wells, drilling into the annulus, and cementing the annulus as the bottom portion of this kill, and there is no indication at all … that we completed this with the static kill from the top,” reminded Allen.

Rigs will begin to drill August 8; “we expect to be somewhere around the annulus around the 13th of August, and the drilling portion into the annulus is expected to occur somewhere between the 14th and the 15th of August.”

The annulus is the open space between the casing pipe that leads from the reservoir to the ocean floor, and the surrounding rock.

“We do not believe that a second try will be needed to go into the casing pipe because the indications are from the cement that was put in from the top is that the casing has been filled with cement down at that level,” said Allen; “If the pressure checks hold and we have indication the casing has been sealed off with cement, then the killing of the well would require only going into the annulus”

BP Official Touts Success Of Static Kill

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told reporters on Friday that the ‘static kill’ procedure put into motion earlier this week to cement the oil company’s leaking well “went very well.”

Suttles, BP’s point-man on the massive spill in the Gulf, which began almost four months ago, said workers performed an “almost textbook job” during the process. Suttles confirmed reports that no oil is currently leaking from the mangled well, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers. As a result, Suttles said, the number of response workers in the Gulf has decreased from 48,000 during the height of the spill, to 31,000.

Suttles said BP will attempt to seel the well later today, adding that a relief well should be completed by the middle of August. BP has been quick to avoid any “mission accomplished” claims until the relief well is ready and the company can perform a “bottom-kill” procedure.

“We’ve got a ton of work left to do,” said Suttles.