News | BP well to stay capped during storm Baton Rouge, LA
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) — The temporary cap on BP’s ruptured oil well can stay closed even if ships evacuate the Gulf of Mexico during a tropical storm, the federal government’s oil spill chief said Thursday.
Growing confidence in the experimental cap’s security convinced scientists it was safe to leave it unmonitored for a few days, Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
Allen said they’ll decide Thursday evening whether ships will have to leave.
“The decision has been made to leave the cap on, even if the well is unattended,” Allen said.
Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami say the storm system has already caused flooding in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It could become Tropical Storm Bonnie later Thursday and reach the Gulf of Mexico by Saturday.
Seas already were choppy in the Gulf, with waves up to five feet rocking boats as crews prepared to leave if needed. Some boats involved in the cleanup were called into port Thursday, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft said. He also directed workers to remove oil-absorbent booms from marsh areas along the coast to prevent damage to ecologically sensitive areas.
Work on plugging the well is at a standstill just days before the expected completion of a relief tunnel to permanently throttle the free-flowing crude.
Crews had planned to spend Wednesday and Thursday reinforcing with cement the last few feet of the relief tunnel that will be used to pump mud into the gusher and kill it once and for all. But BP put the task on hold and instead placed a temporary plug called a storm packer deep inside the tunnel, in case it has to be abandoned until the storm passes.
“What we didn’t want to do is be in the middle of an operation and potentially put the relief well at some risk,” BP vice president Kent Wells said.