BP oil cap hit by “seepage” as bill reaches $4bn
ENGINEERS monitoring BP’s damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico have detected seepage on the ocean floor while the company’s bill for the spill has hi $3.95bn (£2.58bn).
BP said in a statement it continued to run an integrity test on the well, on which it placed a cap last week.
The statement did not refer to oil seeps detected near the well, which the government’s top oil spill official said engineers had detected.
A US government released a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley from retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that referred to an unspecified type of seepage near the mile-deep (1.6 km-deep) well along with “undetermined anomalies at the well head.”
“I direct you to provide me a written procedure for opening the choke valve as quickly as possible without damaging the well should hydrocarbon seepage near the well head be confirmed,” Allen wrote.
BP did not respond to requests for comment on Allen’s letter.
The worst oil spill in U.S. history has caused an economic and environmental disaster in five states along the Gulf Coast, hurt President Barack Obama’s approval ratings and complicated traditionally close ties with Britain.
Those concerns are sure to be discussed when British Prime Minister David Cameron meets Obama in Washington on Tuesday.
The plan had been for BP to resume siphoning the oil after the completion of the pressure tests on the well, which extends 2.5 miles (4 km) under the seabed, to judge if it is able to withstand the process to seal the leak.
But Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, said the company now hopes to keep the damaged well shut until the relief well is completed in August and the leak is sealed off with heavy drilling mud and cement.
“We’re hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue that we’ll be able to continue the integrity test all the way to the point that we get the well killed,” he told reporters before Allen issued his statement. Clearly we don’t want to reanimate flow into the Gulf if we don’t have to.”
Suttles’ statement could indicate diverging viewpoints between BP and the Us government on plans for the well integrity test. It prompted Allen – who will ultimately make the final call on the test – to issue a statement that “nothing had changed” in the joint plan going forward.