Bloomberg: "top kill has worked, oil has stopped"

[Large Sarge]

just saw it on the news, and they showed a 30 seconds of video, no oil coming out

I am looking for more stories verifying it

[Large Sarge]

'Top kill' effort succeeds in blocking oil leak, Coast Guard admiral says
Thad Allen, who is coordinating the government response, says the well still has low pressure, but cement will be used to cap the well permanently as soon as the pressure hits zero.
By Jim Tankersley

May 27, 2010 | 5:43 a.m.
E-mail Print Share Text Size la-na-top-kill-works-20100528

Reporting from Houma, La.Engineers have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persists, he said.

Once engineers have reduced the well pressure to zero, they will begin to pump cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help that effort, he said, engineers are also pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.


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Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well has run out of the fluid, or "mud," and that a second ship is on the way. He said he was encouraged by the progress.

"We'll get this under control," he said.

Allen also said that later today, an interagency team will release a revised estimate of how much oil was flowing from the well into the Gulf before the "top kill" effort began. The Coast Guard has estimated the flow at 5,000 barrels a day, but independent estimates suggest that it was much higher – perhaps tens of thousands of barrels a day.

jim.tankersley@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times


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Discussion FAQ

[Ifyouseekay]

We can only hope this is true. Is there a live feed yet?

[Chibioz]

There's still somethin' shooting out on the bp feed. Maybe a bit premature? The intensity does seem like it has decreased a little. Hopefully they've finally got it.

[undgrd]

Live Feed (http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html)

[Cebu_4_2]

the bottom 2 feeds work here: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/05/liveblogging-top-kill.html

[Chibioz]

Looks like Bloomberg pulled it.

It's no longer on their front page.

[Ifyouseekay]

ummmm.... I still see a whole bunch of oil coming out. I don't think it worked very well.

[Cebu_4_2]

looks just as bad as it did earlier, I dont see any sort of cap either.

[k-os]

It looks like the BP camera backed up a little to make the leak look smaller. :oo-->

[Chibioz]

Bloomberg has put up a new article.

BP Works to Halt Oil Spill as LA Times Reports Success


BP Plc’s latest efforts to plug a leaking well that’s been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more than a month continued as the Los Angeles Times reported the company’s been able to stop the flow.

BP jumped as much as 6.6 percent in London trading after the Los Angeles Times reported that the “top kill” process has been able to stop oil and gas flowing into the Gulf, quoting Thad Allen, the U.S. Coast Guard Commandant. Robert Wine, a spokesman for London-based BP, was unable to confirm the report.

The company began pumping mud-like drilling fluid into the well at 2 p.m. New York time yesterday in a procedure known as top kill. BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said it would require at least another 24 hours to work. The effort is aimed at tamping down the gusher of oil and natural gas and then sealing the well with cement.

Success of top kill would bring to an end a leak that has poured millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf and soiled at least 70 miles (113 kilometers) of coast. BP rose 25 pence, or 5.1 percent, to 517 pence at 2:15 p.m. in London trading.

BP may rise to 550 pence or higher should the company confirm top kill success, Jason Kenney, a London-based analyst for ING Commercial Banking, wrote today in a note to clients. ING rates the shares at “buy.”

“Any early cessation of the leak would only lessen the likely final cost of this episode for BP,” Kenney wrote.

The well began leaking after an April 20 explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. BP leased the rig from Geneva-based Transocean Ltd., the largest deepwater driller. “A whole series of failures,” preceded the blowout, Hayward said yesterday on CNN.

Obama Response

President Barack Obama will announce today the extension of a moratorium that began after oil started to spill from BP’s well, a White House aide said. The president will also cancel a proposal to drill for oil off of the coast of Virginia and planned drilling by Royal Dutch Shell Plc of exploratory wells in the Arctic off Alaska.

Obama will discuss the drilling delays at 12:45 p.m. local time today at the White House. The shift is the result of a 30- day safety review on offshore drilling the president ordered from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcement.

Chances of Success

BP will need to monitor the well and conduct pressure tests to determine if the oil flow has been stopped, Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production, said yesterday at a press conference in Robert, Louisiana. “We are taking great care to make sure we complete this job successfully.”

Hayward put the chances of the plan working at 60 percent to 70 percent three days ago.

The oil slick and areas that appear to have oil on the surface cover about 29,000 square miles, said John Amos, president of Shepherdstown, West Virginia-based SkyTruth, a non- profit organization that uses satellite imagery to measure the spill. That’s an area almost as large as South Carolina.

About 100 miles of Louisiana coastline including marshes and beaches have been affected, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said at yesterday’s press conference in Robert.

BP said May 22 that 5,000 barrels a day was the best estimate for the rate that oil is pouring from the well, a figure challenged by some independent scientists. There will be a press conference today to update that flow rate, according to release from the Joint Information Command.

Flow Rate

U.S. Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said yesterday an internal BP document from April 27 showed the leak may be as large as 14,266 barrels a day.

The amount of oil being spilled will help determine BP’s liability for the leak.

The spill has cost BP a total of $760 million, or about $22 million a day, the company said May 24. Average daily profit last year was $45 million a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The federal government has spent more than $100 million responding to the spill and will be reimbursed by BP, Landry of the Coast Guard said.

BP said yesterday in an e-mailed statement it has paid more than $36 million in damage claims and will appoint an independent mediator to review and assist claims.

BP has said the well can be permanently sealed only by one of two relief wells it’s drilling, which won’t be complete before August. BP will clean up “every drop” of oil, Hayward said May 24.

Other Alternatives

If the top of the well can’t be plugged, the company plans to replace the damaged riser pipe at the well. That requires cutting away a kink in the existing pipe, at least temporarily increasing the size of the leak, BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells said May 25.

Crews would then attach a rubber-sealed cap to the top of the blowout preventer, a series of valves designed to cut off flow from the well. That effort would attempt to divert more oil to the surface than BP has been able to manage with a small pipe inserted in the broken riser on May 16, according to Wells.

The top kill “procedure has not been carried out in 5,000- feet (1,524-meter) water depth before and BP has stressed its success cannot be assured,” Andrew Whittock, an analyst in London at Oriel Securities Ltd., said in a note yesterday. “Many commentators believe the chance of success is less than 50 percent.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-27/bp-says-top-kill-bid-to-plug-leaking-gulf-oil-well-proceeding-to-plan-.html

[Heimdhal]

Im on my crappy lap top and videos and links take forever, so:

The consensus here is that the top kill has NOT worked while they are claiming it did?

I was really hopefull for a second. Even a slow down would be good.

[sirgonzo420]

It looks like the BP camera backed up a little to make the leak look smaller. :oo-->


LOL, that's what it looks like to me too.


As an aside, I was reading just the other day that if you get a cut/burn or something on your hand, and look at it backwards through binoculars, it will reduce the pain.

[Chibioz]

The LA times article now has this appended to it:

[For the record, 6:39 a.m.: An earlier version of this story termed the effort "successful." Officials clarified that neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet. They caution that only after the cementing is complete and the well is sealed can the top kill be called successful.]

[DMac]

Top kill attempt seems to be helping so far, though I think it is still too soon to tel if it has crossed the threshold of being "the" fix.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6515

[k-os]

It looks like the BP camera backed up a little to make the leak look smaller. :oo-->


LOL, that's what it looks like to me too.


As an aside, I was reading just the other day that if you get a cut/burn or something on your hand, and look at it backwards through binoculars, it will reduce the pain.


Ha!

[DMac]

It looks like the BP camera backed up a little to make the leak look smaller. :oo-->


LOL, that's what it looks like to me too.


As an aside, I was reading just the other day that if you get a cut/burn or something on your hand, and look at it backwards through binoculars, it will reduce the pain.


BP also seems to be messing with the brightness of the camera to muddle the view from the camera of what is spewing from the ocean floor.

[steveoc]

Ah - its all fixed now, Mission Accomplished.

I think I have heard that term before somewhere ....

http://politicaldemotivation.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/bush_mission_accomplished.jpg

[Horn]

The LA times article now has this appended to it:

[For the record, 6:39 a.m.: An earlier version of this story termed the effort "successful." Officials clarified that neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet. They caution that only after the cementing is complete and the well is sealed can the top kill be called successful.]


Sounds like they cut the flow down enought to cement it over now.

[Larry]

The spill has cost BP a total of $760 million, or about $22 million a day, the company said May 24. Average daily profit last year was $45 million a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


Geesh, you see these staggering figures of how much it's gonna cost BP, think it's going to bankrupt them. Then you see how much they make, and while it cuts into their profits for a month, not like its that much incentive for caring if they do this every few years.

[Large Sarge]

from what I have seen its all mud blowing out

they keep pushing the mud lower down the well

when it gets to a certain depth I guess it gets thicker, and the pressure drops even more.

they said the fact that they are not going for the mighty "junk shot", is very good news.

it means the top kill is working, going according to plan

[Large Sarge]

this site reportedly bypasses BP

http://socialmediaseo.net/2010/05/26/bp-oil-spill-live-feed-new-live-oil-spill-feed-bypasses-bp-site/

[willie pete]

Another Video Source

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6046305

[ximmy]

"Isn't the plumage beautiful?"

[Quantum]

"Coast Guard Lt. Commander Tony Russell said Thursday reports that Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the operation, had called the procedure a success were incorrect. "

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/26/bp-says-effort-plug-spill-going-planned/

[ximmy]

BP: Your old tire and golf ball donations wanted! BP exec.---> :redfc

[uranian]

6 mile wide hole?? anyone heard anything about this?

New, giant sea oil plume seen in Gulf (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_oil_spill_new_plume)


Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama.

The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science's Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.

The thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), and is more than 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school.

Hollander said the team detected the thickest amount of hydrocarbons, likely from the oil spewing from the blown out well, at about 1,300 feet (nearly 400 meters) in the same spot on two separate days this week.

The discovery was important, he said, because it confirmed that the substance found in the water was not naturally occurring and that the plume was at its highest concentration in deeper waters. The researchers will use further testing to determine whether the hydrocarbons they found are the result of dispersants or the emulsification of oil as it traveled away from the well.

The first such plume detected by scientists stretched from the well southwest toward the open sea, but this new undersea oil cloud is headed miles inland into shallower waters where many fish and other species reproduce.

The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may be the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.

Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and creatures that filter the waters for food.

"There are two elements to it," Hollander said. "The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web."

Dispersants contain surfactants, which are similar to dishwashing soap.

A Louisiana State University researcher who has studied their effects on marine life said that by breaking oil into small particles, surfactants make it easier for fish and other animals to soak up the oil's toxic chemicals. That can impair the animals' immune systems and cause reproductive problems.

"The oil's not at the surface, so it doesn't look so bad, but you have a situation where it's more available to fish," said Kevin Kleinow, a professor in LSU's school of veterinary medicine.

edited to note that it says 6 mile wide plume, not hole, my bad. still quite a plume.

[Quantum]

Is it me ?
But it looks like the plumes of oil are still very present in the live feed...like no improvement at all. ???




No, not just you...that's why the turned off the camera.

British Petroleum's official "explanation":

There was no attempt to prevent the public from watching efforts to plug the leak from the damaged well, a BP spokesman said.

"It's just operational," said BP spokesman Jon Pack. "The camera that was closest to the riser got mud on its lens".

;D ;D ;D

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q57U20100527

[Bullion_Bob]

The spill has cost BP a total of $760 million, or about $22 million a day, the company said May 24. Average daily profit last year was $45 million a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


Geesh, you see these staggering figures of how much it's gonna cost BP, think it's going to bankrupt them. Then you see how much they make, and while it cuts into their profits for a month, not like its that much incentive for caring if they do this every few years.


Exactly. It doesn't cost them shit.

The didn't make the oil in the ground they are selling, it was already there. They take it, and make trillions.

I heard this on the radio today as well. "It's costing them!"

I can't believe anyone would say that with a straight face and consider themselves anywhere close to intelligent.

Yeah I gave out rocks and pebbles I found that I sell for $5,000 each, but it cost me because my arm is tired from handing them to customers. http://fixed.gr/nyc/extensions/Vanillacons/smilies/cool/facepalm.gif

[mick silver]

the oil there recoving will more the pay for the cost of the clean up

[Heimdhal]

The spill has cost BP a total of $760 million, or about $22 million a day, the company said May 24. Average daily profit last year was $45 million a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


Geesh, you see these staggering figures of how much it's gonna cost BP, think it's going to bankrupt them. Then you see how much they make, and while it cuts into their profits for a month, not like its that much incentive for caring if they do this every few years.


Exactly. It doesn't cost them sh*t.

The didn't make the oil in the ground they are selling, it was already there. They take it, and make trillions.

I heard this on the radio today as well. "It's costing them!"

I can't believe anyone would say that with a straight face and consider themselves anywhere close to intelligent.

Yeah I gave out rocks and pebbles I found that I sell for $5,000 each, but it cost me because my arm is tired from handing them to customers. http://fixed.gr/nyc/extensions/Vanillacons/smilies/cool/facepalm.gif




couldnt the same be said for gold ;)

[ximmy]

Flow of oil from spill has stopped!!

Pay no attention to the bellowing plumage

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37394541/ns/gulf_oil_spill/