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BP: no oil leaking out of Gulf of Mexico well

By Emma Thelwell

Updated on 15 July 2010

A BP executive says the oil giant has stopped the leak in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April, as it test a new cap on the well. Science Correspondent Julian Rush says they are proceeding very slowly and carefully for very good reason.

BP starts crucial 48 hour test of its new containment cap on the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico (Image: BP)

Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production, told reporters a new cap had completely shut in the flow while the company conducts a critical pressure test on the stricken well.

Mr Wells said at a news briefing in Houston that the leak was found on the side of the towering, 75-ton capping stack and it was fixed by replacing the assembly, called a "choke line."

BP was finally given the go-ahead by US authorities to test its new containment cap last night, after waiting 24-hours for scientists to assess fears that tests might result in further damage to the well.

The danger is that sealing the well could cause pressures that could lead to cracks deeper down inside the well bore, causing a much more difficult breach in the well that would make the situation much worse.

Why the next 48-hours are vital
The next 48 hours are crucial in BP's attempts to stem the flow of oil, writes Channel 4 News Science Correspondent Julian Rush.They are proceeding very slowly and carefully for very good reason.  The worst case scenario would be a well blow-out - a rupture in the sections of metal drill pipe that go down the hole for thousands of feet to the oil-bearing rocks.  That could lead to oil surging up the hole uncontrollably and a gusher of unconstrained oil and gas that would dwarf the current disaster.
Read more...

BP has a two-day window to test the cap, during which the results are fed up to the surface on electrical wires from transducers fitted to the new cap and analysed.

Tests will involve increasing the pressure in the capping stack at six-hour intervals. At each interval the pressure data will be collected by remote robots.

Earlier, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, in charge of the clean-up operation in Louisiana, said: "Two of the very positive aspects that can come out of this, depending on the pressure readings that we find, are an assessment of whether or not we can just cap the well at this point and the pressures can be maintained without damaging the wellbore or the casings. 

"We are also in the process of building out an enhanced containment strategy, which includes redundancy so if one part of the system is not working we can continue to produce and capacity."

As the Gulf region heads on into the hurricane season, Admiral Allen said: "We have good weather right now and we’ll try to take advantage of that, as you know, but if we have to leave the site, we need to know whether or not we can just cap the well and leave."

Admiral Allen said the government's delay to the test may have been "an overabundance of caution".


JR is back...selling solar panels
Actor Larry Hagman, once the ruthless cigar-chomping oil baron JR Ewing of the hit TV series Dallas, is so incensed by the BP oil spill he has made a comeback, complete with Stetson. But this time, it is advertising solar panels.
"With all that oil gushing away in the Gulf I figured it was time to call for a new direction in where we're getting our energy," he told The New York Times. "Since Sarah Palin is saying 'Drill, baby, drill' I'm saying 'Shine, baby, Shine'. It's a lot cheaper and cleaner".
Hagman turned to green energy after California's East Coast blackout in 2003. He now runs his 44-acre farm in Ohio with solar panels. In an interview with MSNBC two years ago, Hagman said his energy bills had gone from $37,000 (£24,000) a year to just $13.
In the advert (see video) Hagman, 78, assumes his JR role to say: "In the past it was always about the oil. The oil was flowing and so was the money. But I'm still in the energy business. There's always a better alternative".

The new cap, a 75-ton metal stack of pipes and valves, was lowered onto the leaking well on Monday, but the government stepped in before BP could test it.

BP has also suspended drilling for 48 hours on the two relief wells that are nearing completion – the wells that are intended to permanently plug the leak.

Meanwhile, a government House Committee in the US have proposed banning oil and gas companies that have suffered 10 fatalities or more from securing new exploration leases in the Gulf of Mexico for up to seven years.

This could see the end of new operations in the Gulf for BP, if the oil group is found to be criminally negligent in the accident that blew up the Deepwater Horizon costing 11 lives.

More from Channel 4 News on the BP oil spill
- US senators target BP over Lockerbie link

- Rivals, white knights and Libya: who wants BP?
- Who Knows Who: Tony Hayward
- The pension fund victims of the BP oil spill
- BP oil spill: timeline of events

While Democrat George Miller's amendment did not mention BP directly, his office wrote in an email: "The Miller amendment would prohibit BP or any other company with an egregious worker and environmental safety record from new offshore oil and gas drilling".

This is just the latest blow in a seemingly unending targeting of the company by legislators, following the demands for an inquiry into BP's involvement into the early release of the convicted Lockerbie terrorist Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi.

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