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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Liveblogging Top Kill

Courtesy of George Washington

Liveblog continues here

12:53: I’ve added a PBS website feed, showing the leaking riser. Obviously, the riser is still gushing.

12:26: The underwater cameras have been inspecting the BOP for some time. To my untrained eye, it looks like much of the BOP is still intact, although I noticed a small leak, and some equipment breaks.

The camera panned around, and there are still 1 or 2 big gushers coming from elsewhere (One of them looks like the main leaking riser which has been filed over the past couple of days, although it’s hard to tell).

Noon: A Coast Guard spokesman just said could take 3-4 days to know if top kill is working. Similarly, AP notes:

BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the company will pump mud for hours, and officials have indicated it may be a couple of days before they know whether the procedure is working.

11:52: Remember, BP has two purposes in video inspections:

(1) To see what is happening now, in terms of stopping the oil spill, and to see which equipment is likely to break of spring a new leak;

 

and

 

(2) Documenting for use in future lawsuits, to determine whether BP, Transocean, Halliburton or someone else was the primary negligent party.

11:50 a.m. Pacific Standard Time: BP is implementing Top Kill on the oil spill right now.

I can see it on the live video feed (I am providing feed from four websites, as they some sites are periodically going down):

WKRG’s Website

Congressman Markey’s Website

BP’s Website

PBS’ Website

AP notes:

Bob Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said the procedure carries a high risk of failure because of the velocity at which the oil may be spewing.

 

“I certainly pray that it works, because if it doesn’t there’s this long waiting time” before BP can dig relief wells that would cut off the flow, Bea said.

For more on Professor Bea, see this.

Godspeed …

Updates to follow.

For running comments from oil industry insiders, see The Oil Drum.

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