Has the Horror been Contained at Last ???

Off Louisiana's shore

Beach in Alabama

A combination photo shows the BP oil leak in images taken from BP live video on May 26, 2010 (top L), June 1, 2010 (top R), July 13, 2010 and on July 15, 2010, capped, and so far leak proof.

The newly capped BP Gulf well  is under close scrutiny as the entire planet holds it's breath. The cap appeared to hold on Friday, but officials intensified monitoring after a critical test showed pressure rising slower than they hoped. BP began pressure tests on the well after choking it off on Thursday for the first time since the April 20 rig explosion that triggered the leak. Underwater robots scanned the sea floor for signs the undersea well was damaged.

"We've seen no negative evidence of any breaching there," said Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production.
The tests, which began Thursday afternoon and are expected to last up to 48 hours, showed the cap was building pressure in the well, meaning it was strong enough to contain the oil without leaking. But it was not rising fast enough.
"We have decided to move forward with another six-hour increment (of testing)," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. government's point man on the spill, told reporters at a briefing on Friday afternoon. Allen had said pressure above 7,500 pounds per square inch would show the well was intact, while pressure that lingered below 6,000 psi would signal damage. The pressure Friday afternoon remained close to 6,700 psi -- the same level as BP announced eight hours earlier -- and was barely rising by two to 10 psi per hour. BP was told to step up monitoring for any seabed breaches and gather additional seismic data to detect any pockets of oil in the layers of rock and sediment around the well.

 Earlier, President Obama warned that more work was needed before the well could be considered fixed.
"We won't be done until we actually know that we've killed the well and that we have a permanent solution in place. We're moving in that direction, but I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves," Obama said at the White House. Mr Obama is under fire to push BP to permanently plug the leak and clean up an environmental and economic mess across five U.S. Gulf states. The spill has cut into multi-billion dollar fishing, tourism and drilling industries.


Several previous attempts to plug the leak did not work, and investors remained cautious on BP's latest effort.The British energy giant's shares fell about 50 percent in the first two months of the crisis but have gained 40 percent since late June..
Following the pressure tests, BP plans to siphon up to 80,000 barrels of oil a day using a seal installed earlier this week and send it a mile up to waiting ships. Estimates had put the spill rate at between 35,000 barrels (1.47 million gallons/5.56 million liters) and 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons/9.5 million liters) a day.


BP still expects to drill a new well by early August to intersect the ruptured one and seal it with mud and cement.The capping of the well came nearly three months after an oil rig explosion ruptured the well and killed 11 men. But some residents in battered coastal communities remained skeptical. "This is only the second day. I am not celebrating anything yet," Cindy Nelson of Biloxi said.


Under pressure from Obama, BP has established a $20-billion fund to cover the costs of the spill. Three analysts, hired  by Reuters TV  forecast the company will pay between $63 billion to $100 billion over the next 15 years in fines and cleanup and legal costs. Peter Hutton, an analyst at NCB Securities in London, pegged the total cost at $40 billion.
"It's relief all around to see that (undersea) camera, at last, with no oil coming out," said Hutton. "But people recognize that they're not completely out of the woods."

The crisis has complicated U.S. relations with close ally Britain. Many Britons believe Washington is treating BP too harshly, to the detriment of British pension funds and other investors who have big stakes in the company. U.S. lawmakers also are considering a range of new rules that could impose tougher safety regulations on offshore drilling or bar companies like BP from new offshore exploration leases.The Obama administration issued a revised offshore drilling moratorium this week after a previous six-month ban was struck down by the courts.

 I think that most of us feel Mr Obama is certainly not treating BP too harshly. They need to make restitution and they need to clean up this mess. The permanent damage is inestimable and how can you put a quantitative value on eleven lives ? Also, Mr Obama must make an example of BP so that this never happens again due to carelessness, negligence and the deliberate flouting of safety regulations..... Fingers crossed that the cap holds.