HOUSTON —As BP engineers failed again to plug the gushing oil well on Saturday, officials said that the company was eyeing other options to stem the flow spreading into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP made a third attempt Friday night at what is termed the “junk shot,” a procedure that involves pumping odds and ends like plastic cubes, knotted rope, and golf balls into the blowout preventer, the five-story safety device atop the well. The maneuver is complementary to the heavily scrutinized effort known as a “top kill,”which began four days ago and involves pumping heavy mud into the well to counteract the push of the escaping oil. If the well is sealed, the company plans to then fill it with cement.
The technician working on the project said Saturday pumping had again been halted and a review of the data so farwas under way. “Right now, I would not be optimistic,” the technician, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the effort. But he added, that if another attempt at the junk shot were to succeed, “that would turn things around.”
Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, said Saturday at a news conference in Fourchon Beach, La. said that it was too soon to tell whether the procedure was working, adding it was a process of stopping and starting and reevaluating. But so far, what was thought to be the company’s best option for stopping the leak, has not been successful and an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil a day has continued to spill into gulf waters.
"I don’t think the amount of oil coming out has changed," he said.Mr. Suttles said they are still assessing whether the procedure will work, but preparations are underway for a “lower marine riser package cap” – a technology that would involve sawing off the riser and placing a device atop it to -capture the escaping oil. Equipment has already been deployed on land and on the sea bed, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30spill.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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