BP's 2nd dome waits on Gulf seabed
A small dome designed to contain oil gushing from an underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico is sitting on the seabed about 80 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana waiting to be put in place.
BP crews expect to deploy the dome, called a "top hat," by the weekend to capture the oil and funnel it to a tanker on the water's surface through a series of riser pipes.
But the London-based oil giant has no time to waste.
BP announced Thursday it is spending $10 million US a day on cleanup costs. The tab, based on a statement filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, includes money it has given to the coastal states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and to the federal government for their responses.
The costs also include efforts to contain the crude and ongoing work to drill a relief well.
The "top hat" is a smaller version of the 12-metre tall, 90-tonne box BP tried lowering over the well late last week. That box, which looks something like a giant milk carton, had to be moved aside after a slushy mixture of gas and water clogged the opening in its roof.
Meanwhile, BP is increasingly hopeful that it will be able to stop the oil by plugging the blowout preventer, a 408-tonne piece of equipment that sits on top of the wellhead during drilling operations and whose valves can be closed remotely in case of an accident or increase in pressure.
BP is also planning what it calls a "top kill" of the well: injecting materials "of varying densities and sizes" including golf balls, rubber and fibres into the preventer to clog it up before pumping heavy fluids into the well itself to prevent the flow of oil, the company said on its website.
The valve failed when the rig drilling into the Gulf, the Deepwater Horizon, exploded on April 20 and sank. More than 17.9 million litres of oil have flowed into the surrounding waters since the leaks were discovered on April 22.
"The systems are intended to be fail-safe; sadly and for reasons we do not yet understand, in this case, they were not," BP America president Lamar McKay testified Tuesday at a U.S. Senate committee hearing into the accident.
Hydraulic leak
Congressman Henry Waxman, who chairs the House energy and commerce committee, said Wednesday the committee's investigation into the oil spill revealed the blowout preventer had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system.
The well had also failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion, he said.
BP, which had leased the rig and is responsible for cleanup operations, has spent an estimated $450 million on them since the rig sank.
Video released Wednesday by BP shows the oil spewing from a yellowish, broken pipe 1,500 metres below the water's surface.
With files from The Associated Press
