BP plan ‘top kill’ procedure to plug oil leak

Diagnostic tests have been carried out to determine whether BP can go ahead with their plans to plug the leaking oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The plan is to use a ‘top kill’ system which involves heavy drilling fluids being injected into the well a mile underwater.

Over the last few weeks, several tactics have failed when it has come to trying to stop the leaking oil doing any more damage so now BP are really feeling the pressure for this latest plan to work.

It has been estimated that around 5,000 barrels of oil are leaking a day and this is destroying the wildlife in the surrounding areas. The American government have said that the seafood producing states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are all facing disaster as a result of the leak which took 11 lives when the drilling rig first exploded.

It is said that the ‘top kill’ spill control method of plugging the leak has a 50-50 chance of working. It has been a successful method all over the world, but the procedure has never been tried 5,000 feet below sea level.

Tests have been carried out to make sure that the blowout preventer of the well would be able to withstand the pressure of the injection.