With BP Spill Behind Him, Thad Allen Finally Retires

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen announced Friday that he is stepping down from his role as the Obama administration’s point man on the effort to control the BP oil spill.

Allen said in a statement that although the “National Incident Command is disestablished…our commitment to this response and the people of the Gulf of Mexico remains.” Allen will join RAND next week, conducting research for the think tank’s Center on Homeland Security.

A decorated veteran of the Coast Guard, Allen served for 39 years before announcing his retirement at the outset of this year. However, days after the Deepwater Horizon Macando well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, killing 11 workers, Allen was called on by Obama to lead the effort to plug the blown-out well.

Allen worked tirelessly throughout the summer with BP and other federal officials to cap the well, which leaked a total of nearly 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf. After weeks of failure, engineers were able to cement the well in August. On September 19, BP announced that it had completed a relief well, effectively ending the potential for any more oil to leak out.

In a statement Friday, Obama thanked Allen for putting off his retirement to deal with the spill.

“At a time when he could have enjoyed a well-deserved retirement from the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Allen stepped up to the plate and served his country when his skills and experience were urgently needed,” the president said. “This unprecedented response effort simply could not have succeeded without Admiral Allen at the helm, and the nation owes him a debt of gratitude.”

Because of its large and prolonged impact, the spill is considered to be the worst environmental disaster ever to occur in the U.S., and served as a catalyst to cripple the Gulf region’s economy, destroy fish and other wildlife and create a cloud of anger and frustration that blanketed the nation all summer long.

The Leak Is Over: BP, USCG Declare Macondo Well Permanently Sealed

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - The Talk Radio News Service

After five months, the BP Deepwater Macondo Well has finally been permanently sealed.  

“We can now state, definitively, that the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico,” said National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen in a statement released by the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command on Sunday.

Pressure testing was completed early Sunday morning, assuring crews that the well is in fact completely sealed, and that the cement has set.

“This is a significant milestone in the response to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and is the final step in a complex and unprecedented subsea operation - finally confirming that this well no longer presents a threat to the Gulf of Mexico,” said Tony Hayward, petroleum mogul BP’s group chief executive, in a press release issued Sunday by BP. 

The final plugging of the well was enabled by the drilling of a relief well, which the administration has been touting as the only final answer to the months long leak since the beginning, despite having essentially capped the well with a customized stacking cap in mid July.  The relief well intercepted the Macondo’s annulus last wednesday, and began pumping a cement mixture into the open space on Friday.

The deepwater Macondo well, owned and operated by an amalgam of international corporations - including Britain’s BP and Halliburton, and the Swiss company Transocean - spewed millions of barrels of Sweet Louisiana Crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico after the rig exploded in a string of mishaps that took the lives of 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, and crippled the Gulf Coast’s economy, which relies heavily upon the triumvirate of fishing, tourism, and oil industries.

As of Friday, 39,885 square miles of Gulf of Mexico federal waters remain closed to fishing in response to public health and safety concerns, and approximately 600 miles of coastline are still experiencing some oil impacts, primarily in Louisiana, according to the Deepwater Horizon Joint Incident Command. 

BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay said Sunday; “BP remains committed to remedying the harm that the spill caused to the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf Coast environment, and to the livelihoods of the people across the region.” 

Admiral Allen Directs BP To Complete Relief Well

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - The Talk Radio News Service

On Friday National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen issued a directive to BP’s incoming Chief Executive Officer, Bob Dudley, authorizing the corporation to move ahead with efforts to complete the relief well that shows promise of putting a final close on the failed deepwater Macondo well, which was responsible for the months-long oil leak that has put petroleum conglomerate BP in the hot seat since the drilling rig exploded in April.

In the directive, Admiral Allen outlined a number of steps to be executed on the well:

1) Evaluate the status of the well’s casing hammer,

2) Secure the hammer with a locking room, assuming the hangar is in nominal position,

3) Commence completion of drilling by Development Driller III to intercept the Macondo well,

4) Conduct any “supporting activities … that are consistent with the relief well intercept,”

5) Develop and implement procedures that will allow for injection of mud and cement into the well’s annulus (space between the well casing and the earth),

6) Consult the Government Scientific Technical Team if the casing hangar is not in a position allowing for installation of a locking ring.

Although only negligible amounts of oil have leaked into the Gulf since a capping stack was installed on top of the crippled blowout preventer in mid July, Allen has repeatedly stated that, “the relief well remains the ultimate step in stopping the BP oil leak for good.”

Pressure Tests Determine Oil In Annulus; Officials Debate How To Proceed

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

In a conference call with reporters, Friday, National Incident Commander Thad Allen reported the status of pressure tests on the Macondo deepwater well - the well responsible for the months-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - which resumed Thursday after storms passed through the Gulf.

Allen told reporters that the tests had revealed, “something that is between the annulus and the reservoir that is not allowing the flow of hydrocarbons … the question is, what to do about that moving forward.” 

Crews have determined that there may be as much as 1,000 barrels of “stagnant” oil suspended in the well, which could compromise the success of the bottom kill. “Tt remains a work in progress,” said Allen; “we’re trying to assess the options that we have. Everyone is in agreement that we need to proceed with the relief well - the question is how to do that.”

There is a risk that pumping mud and cement into the bottom of the well could increase the pressure beyond the threshold of the machinery now holding the well shut. “To increase the pressure in the blowout preventer and the capping stack in excess of 7,500 PSI would put that link in between them at risk, and we’re trying to figure out what that means and how we could mitigate that risk,” said Allen. 

Officials report that they are still wholly committed to completing the relief well and executing the bottom kill, and Allen reported that despite pressure test results showing a possible situation in which conducting a bottom kill could endanger the well’s integrity, BP officials would be “delighted” to show that they could, “drill down over 17,00 feet below sea level and hit a 7-inch pipe.” 

“The relief well will be finished, and that is the end result. How it gets finished will be determined on risk mitigation and the way forward that’s being discussed right now. The relief well will be finished - we will kill the well,” Allen concluded. The well will take about 96 hours to complete once drilling has resumed, according to administration officials.

Relief Well Drilling Suspended Due To Weather

By Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News Service

As heavy storms brew in the Gulf of Mexico, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen reports that drilling will halt on the relief well that may finally put an end to the months-long BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill until the weather system has passed.

The Development Driller III, which has drilled to within about thirty feet of the crippled Macondo well, will disengage from the well itself but will remain onsite through the storm. Allen told reporters that the joint command had expected to complete the relief well on Thursday or Friday of this week - “this could potentially delay the final portion of the relief well for two to three days.”

The response team does not expect the storms to reach hurricane status, but are executing safety measures “as a precaution.”

In the meantime, the team, “will continue our aggressive search for oil that’s onshore in the marshes, to make sure we’re being responsive to the oil that does appear.”

“As we near the completion of the relief well, we’ll kind of assess where we’re at because we are moving into a new phase, where we’ll be focusing on locating any oil that remains out there - surface or subsurface - focusing on cleanup, and starting with the long-term recovery issues, and making sure that BP maintains their commitment,” said Allen.