BREAKING: 'Top kill' effort succeeds in blocking oil leak, Coast Guard admiral says

'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

5:43 AM PDT, May 27, 2010

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.

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.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-top-kill-works-20100528,0,4282960.story

Whether you want to or not.

four weeks ago. His wife says they have been working 18 hour days in extremely challenging conditions. These folks deserve major league thanks and then some.

The one thing you had that was designed to plug a blown out well, and you used it!!

Gee, I'd a never thought of using the BOP to stop a blown out well. Man, you guys are the experts!!

Like thanking the bank robber for telling where she hid the stolen money after she's been caught?

That kind of thanks?

It was a combined effort of experts in physics, underwater ROV operations, and well capping from the Gulf War.

Remember all those oil wells Saddam set on fire back in '92? Yeah, the guys who fixed that worked with the other expters to develop this.

Now the effort has to focus on the cleanup and keeping as much of the oil from getting to the shores as possible.

Louisiana is still going to suffer from the effects of this for decades to come.

It's ironic, really. The LA politicians loved off shore drilling, all the way up until Deepwater Horizon blew up.

:P

anything..just on the edge of my seat with constant butterflies hoping something would work soon!

entire BOP could rip apart but it looks like they've got it. We will know soon for sure. Thank goodness!

I hope this continues to go as planned.

far below the surface of the ocean. Kind of an engineering breakthrough, if progress keeps staying this way throughout the day.

Just this once, y'know?

I remember this ANNOUNCEMENT from the Coast Guard just last month (23 Apr 10):

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said Friday morning that no oil appeared to be leaking from a well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water's surface. But she said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill out.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/23/missing-workers-feared-dead-gulf-rig-sinks/


I don't trust ANY of these "officials." :thumbsdown:

watching live feeds?

:rofl:

Hell yeah! :thumbsup:

absurd.

just to be able to hook up to it to do this.

I'm just glad they were able to do it at all - this is very hopeful news - I hope the cementing process goes as planned.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

To add insult to injury, MSNBC just announced that they have now admitted to low balling the OIL LEAK to be 5 times MORE than previously estimated. :wow: :grr:

a mere oversight? Right? :(

it is a precious resource.

think they will begin to tell us the truth NOW?

that what the Admiral says is true, or that it seems to be at least slowing down the leaking.

But it's interesting, as well as disheartening, to read the words of those who seem to care most about the hope that this will destroy Obama--along with the Gulf Coast.

saying not yet, as if they are hoping there is still time for something to go wrong and for a bigger disaster to take place.

If I'm not mistaken it's almost as if this disaster is somehow giving you the strength to get up each morning to help cheer it on. Am I wrong?

We all want this leak stopped, right?