BP fit new cap to leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico

In news from the Gulf of Mexico, underwater submersibles have started the process of fitting a new cap on the leaking blown-out Deepwater Horizon oil well. This is BP’s attempt to fit a cap with a tighter seal, after oil from the previous cap was still leaking uncontrollably into the Gulf. The process of fitting the new cap has however unfortunately meant the removal of the old cap, allowing thousands of barrels of oil to flow freely into the Gulf. The whole process from removal to refitting is estimated to take between four and seven days.

BP is using around 400 oil skimmers on the surface above the leaking oil to minimise the impact of the extra oil loss. They are also using thousands of containment booms to stop the oil reaching land and are well under way with the drilling of two relief wells. One of which is hoped to be operational at the beginning of August. A larger spill containment vessel is also estimated to be on site soon to help with the collection of oil.

The ill-fitting cap was removed at around 6pm on Saturday and BP hope the new cap will be able to increase the collected oil from around 20,000 barrels per day, to 50,000 barrels per day.