BP Well Gushes Unchecked as Robot Bumps 'Top Hat'

After robot accident on Wednesday you can see the well gushing freely

NEW ORLEANS — Oil had spewed uncontrolled into the Gulf of Mexico for much of the day Wednesday before engineers re­attached a cap being used to contain the gusher and direct some of the crude to a surface ship. BP confirmed the cap was back in place, and said it had been hooked up around 6:30 p.m. after more than eight hours of inactivity.

Most recently, the system, which has been in place since June 4, was sucking up about 29,000 gallons of crude oil an hour; crude that spewed into the Gulf  unabated on Wednesday. At that rate, it could mean about 290,000 extra gallons escaped into the water before the system restarted. Another ship was still collecting a smaller amount of oil and burning it on the surface.BP engineers removed the cap after a robotic sub bumped it . The sub had been investigating an apparent leak , creating a possible safety hazard because of the flames above, and they were concerned icelike crystals might clog  the mechanism.


The latest problem with the nine-week effort to stop the gusher came as thick pools of oil washed up on Pensacola Beach in Florida and the Obama administration sought to resurrect a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling. In court papers, the Justice Department has asked  U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to delay a ruling that overturned the moratorium. The Interior Department imposed it last month after the disaster, halting approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement that within the next few days he would issue a new order imposing a moratorium that eliminates any doubt it is needed and appropriate.


In the worst-case scenario, as much as 104,000 gallons an hour — 2.5 million gallons a day — is flowing from the site where the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. In May, a similar problem doomed the effort to put a bigger containment device over the blown-out well. BP had to abandon the four-story box after the crystals clogged it, threatening to make it float away.The smaller cap had worked until now. To get it to the seafloor, though, crews had to slice away a section of the leaking pipe, meaning the flow of oil could be stronger than before.
Careless, negligent, reckless, rash and thoughtless is how I sum up British Petroleum's actions and attitude. If they had given it much thought they would have had workable protocols and solutions in place for possible accidents. If they had given it enough thought, this would never have happened.