Check out this Spill Cam site - there is something going on right now!

[1776Forever]

http://www.livestream.com/wkrg_oil_spill

[Staph]

1. This is amazing!

There are two robot arms trying to grasp a pipe with one arm and screw some kind of handle into the pipe with the other. I can't believe that I am watching what is happening more than a mile under the ocean.

[1776Forever]

4. Doesn't it look like they are trying to tap the spill? I wish we had more info.

There are comments on the side by bloggers but I don't really think anyone knows what is going on.

[elleng]

2. Yes, but what???

[marylanddem]

3. would be nice if BP would explain what the hell it's doing...

[elleng]

5. I think they have said what they were going to do.

Lots of info, difficult to track it.

[elleng]

6. BP Prepares for ‘Top Kill’ Procedure.

On Tuesday, engineers guided submarine robots through diagnostic tests in preparation for the top kill, a maneuver in which tubes will inject thousands of pounds of heavy drilling fluids into a five-story-tall stack of pipes to clog the well. A 30,000-horsepower engine on a ship floating above the well will shoot the liquids, known in the oil business as drilling mud.

The technique has been used successfully for other spills, notably for stopping the oil flooding out of Kuwaiti oil wells sabotaged by the Iraqi army at the end of the first Persian Gulf war.

Several veterans of that operation are orchestrating technicians in the Gulf of Mexico. To lead the effort, BP has brought in Mark Mazzella, its top well-control expert, who was mentored by Bobby Joe Cudd, a legendary Oklahoma well firefighter.

But at a mile below the gulf surface, the pressures of the surging oil and gas may be too much for the drilling fluids to counteract and reverse, BP officials warned.

“It has been done successfully in the past, but it hasn’t been done at this depth,” said Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president for exploration and production. “We always have to be careful about setting expectations.”

BP said in a statement that the top kill could be combined with a procedure known as a junk shot, in which materials like golf balls and pieces of rubber are injected into the blowout preventer to bridge gaps in the rams and stop or sharply reduce the flow of oil.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/26spill.html?hpw

[1776Forever]

7. Thanks - I was trying to find this. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

9. I hope it works, but I still want Kent Wells head on a pike. eom

[MiniMe]

10. Considering they are doing it in the middle of the night,

I'm not sure they want anybody to know what they are doing.

[Petrushka]

8. K & R --- Fascinating!

:kick:

[Divine Discontent]

11. K&R - it's really changing often. now it resembles a volcano shooting ash.

[yella_dawg]

12. I've been watching the live feed since it became available.

Both the riser and the BOP. I haven't seen this before. Any ideas what we are looking at??

[1776Forever]

13. CNN had a video on it today and they will put dirt and then concrete in the hole.

BP CEO said it is going as planned on twitter BP_America account but they won't know if it worked for 24 hrs.

[1776Forever]

14. Here's a detailed description and diagram of the 'top kill' procedure:link

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033657&contentId=7062095

[Change Happens]

15. I am starting to see the mud coming out now? Can you?

They had said at some point, the pressure will push the mud out of the pipe until it gets enough in there and heavier to kill the flow...I think this is mud now.