BP Affixes new Cap on Gulf Oil Well; Tests Ahead

New Orleans - BP robots attached to a new, tighter cap sitting on top of the Gulf of Mexico oil gushing leak on Monday, raising hopes that crude could keep up polluting the water for the first time in nearly three months.

Placing the top hat was a leak two days after graduation delicate preparation and one day it's a slow decrease is a way below the sea. That capping - relative to the project to build underwater Lego tower - just a temporary fix, but the oil giant is the best hope for containing the spill.

Next is unknown whether the 18-foot-high, 150,000-pound stack of metal pipes and valves to work. Government plans to start tests Tuesday, gradually shutting the valves to see if the oil stops, or when it starts blowing in another part of the good.


Residents are skeptical BP can deliver its promise to control the spill, but the news was not welcome on the shore. Dwayne Touchet, a 44-year-old shrimper from Welsh, La., Said he was relieved to hear the cap, and can only pray that it works. Touchet is working vessels Opportunities Program, where BP is working in the local boat owners and fisherman out of work because of the spill.

"It's not over, there is still a very clean oil. We do not know how it will look at it (water) has come, we can do is trust the Lord, "he said.

Around 6:30 pm CDT, live video streams on the wellhead courses showed that the cap be lowered slowly into place, 11 hours later, BP Chief Operating Director Doug Suttles said the company was close to placing the seal location. BP officials said the device was attached around 7 pm

That cap will be tested and monitored to see if it can withstand the pressure from oil and gas Tuesday morning at 48 for six hours, according to the National incident commander Thad Allen. His Facebook page, Allen also shared news development. "Getting there», Allen wrote a status update soon after the cap is landed.

That cap will be tested out in the final three separate valves that fit snugly together like twin fists, choking off the oil and blocking it to enter the Gulf.

The government did not want to stop the oil flow instantaneously, said Don Van Nieuwenhuise, director of professional programs Geosciences University of Houston. Shutting out the oil too quickly can cause another explosion, he said.

"Rather than running like a train into the brick wall, it will be more like putting the brakes on a slow, he said. "This is what they aimed at? You can keep the brakes on, and everyone arrives alive, or you hit the wall and have a big problem. "

Engineers should be looking at the pressure readings. High pressure is good, because it means the leak is contained within the wellhead machines. But if the readings are lower than expected, that may mean there is another mesh elsewhere also.

"Another concern at this point will be how much pressure can also pick up, and whether the strong pressure of more damage, that Eric Smith, associate director of Tulane Energy Institute.

Even if the cap works, the blown-out will be good not to be leaking. But newer, tighter cap would allow BP to capture all the oil, or help funnel it to the ships on the surface if necessary.

One of the ships that helix producer, began operating on Monday, and it is up to its capacity to collect nearly 1 million gallons of oil a day, few days, Suttles said.

A permanent fix should be expected to help one of two wells being drilled to reach the broken, which then can be plugged with drilling mud and cement. That can not happen until mid-August.

Meanwhile, Obama's administration has issued a revised moratorium on deep water offshore drilling Tuesday replace one that was down on the number of courts have a heavy handed. New ban in effect until November 30, does not appear to deviate much to the original moratorium, as it still targets the deep water drilling operators, establishing them in different ways.

Works with new capping operation began Saturday with a mesh lid to do that has attracted nearly 1 million 1.5 million 2.5 million gallons of oil spilling on the government's calculations as well every day.

Gulf residents closely watching the operation, knowing the damage already done to the biological rich Gulf coast and two leading industry, fishing and tourism.

"I think we're going to see oil from sale of mobile phones, roaming around, taking shots at us for next year, maybe two," said Billy Nungesser, chairman of Louisiana oil-stained Plaquemines parish. "If you told me today no more oil comes ashore, we still got a massive cleanup before.

BP «can not do much, but they know how to drill wells," dock master Jimmy Beason said the marina in Orange Beach, Ala. "I think that before the end of this month will be stopped, and this work with the hat is part of it. I see light at the end of the tunnel. "

As Monday, the 83rd day of the disaster, between 89 million and 176 million gallons of oil were poured into the Gulf, according to government estimates. That the flood began on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon uniform, rental of BP from Transocean Ltd., exploded and burned, killing 11 workers. It sank two days later.

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