Runaway Well On Life Support After "Static Kill" Procedure

After drilling and pumping mud and heavy drilling fluid into the capped oil well in the Gulf Coast, a procedure also known as “static kill,” the now infamous well is that much closer to being completely stopped.

BP officials said that the procedure was a great success but they continue to monitor the status of the well.

“The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, the desired outcome of the static kill procedure,” BP said in a statement. “The well is now being monitored, per the procedure, to ensure the well remains static [and] further pumping of mud may or may not be required depending on the results observed during monitoring.”

This breakthrough comes 106 days after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, killing 11 people and dumped close to 5 million of barrels into the region’s waters.