The BP oil leak could be completely contained as early as Monday if a new, tighter cap can be fitted over the blown-out well, the government official in charge of the crisis said Friday in some of the most encouraging news to come out of the Gulf in the two and half months since the disaster struck.
After several failures to cap the leaking oil gusher 5,000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico, BP is going to install a new cap, known as Top Hat Number 10 this weekend, in an effort to contain the oil spewing into the gulf.
Since the spill on April 20, underwater robots have done most of the heavy lifting at these depths. They will cut the damaged cap and replace it with the new 75-ton solution. While this will contain most of the oil, it will not stop the leak. The leak will stop when the oil company completes drilling of a relief well, sometime in early August.
A 175-foot low-flying blimp also joined the fight this week. It will seek out oily hotspots from the air so a new ship with actor Kevin Costner’s oil from water separation device can start cleaning up the surface of the Gulf.
Still 1.5-2.5 million gallons per day continue leaking leaking from the Horizon Deepwater oil disaster. When the robots uncap the well the oil and gas will rush into the gulf at full force –which scientists estimate at around 3.4 million gallons per day — until the new cap can be placed, hopefully by July 12.
“Everything done at that site is very much harder than anyone expects,” he said. Overton said putting on the new cap carries risks: “Is replacing the cap going to do more damage than leaving it in place, or are you going to cause problems that you can’t take care of?” — Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton
