Leak finally stopped?
Posted Jul 13, 2010 04:53:39 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
B-P robots have attached a new, tighter-fitting cap on top of the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil leak.
The progress made yesterday is raising hopes the crude can be kept from polluting the water for the first time in nearly three months.
Placing a cap atop the leak was the climax of two days of delicate prep work and a day of slowly lowering it into position 1.6 kilometres below the sea.
The capping project — akin to building an underwater Lego tower — is just a temporary fix, but it’s the oil giant’s best hope for containing the spill.
The next unknown is whether the 5.5-meter-high 68-thousand-kilogram metal stack of pipes and valves will work.
B-P plans to start tests today, gradually shutting the valves to see if the oil stops or if it starts leaking from another part of the well.
