Engineers monitored a newly capped oil well in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday amid cautious optimism the months-long spill behind the worst environmental disaster in US history has been finally contained.
The tests, which involve multiple pressure readings on the wellbore that runs to the oil reservoir below the seabed, have provided “valuable information” and would continue into yesterday, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said.
Once the analysis is complete, the British energy firm will open the new cap and resume siphoning off the oil to two production vessels on the sea surface, he added.
BP said earlier on Saturday that the cap placed over the gushing wellhead was still holding back spilling crude, but the results of tests on the well’s structure required more analysis.
“We’re feeling more confident that we have integrity,” BP senior vice president Kent Wells told reporters.
The tests began on Thursday after valves on the cap were sealed, choking off the flow of crude into the Gulf for the first time since the spill began in April.
Allen said that pressure in the capping stack was continuing to increase “very slowly and we want to continue to monitor this progress.”
BP also brought in a ship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to survey the area. If there was a leak, BP would have to open the valves holding back the oil and allow the crude to once again flow freely into the Gulf, experts said.
The oil firm plans to eventually reach a total collection capacity of up to 80,000 barrels per day — more than the estimated volume of the spill.
The containment cap is a temporary solution to the broken well, which spewed oil into the Gulf for months following the April 20 rig explosion. Progress continues on two relief wells, expected to be completed in the middle of next month, which Allen recalled are “the ultimate step in stopping the BP oil leak for good.”
“We’re feeling very good at this point about how the well is lining up,” Wells said.
Nothing but a white cap and underwater robots appeared on Saturday on a video feed that had for weeks shown clouds of oil gushing forth at an estimated rate of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day.
However temporary, the halt provided a glimmer of hope that the worst oil spill in US history could soon be over, allowing efforts to turn to the grim job of cleaning up hundreds of kilometers of contaminated shorelines.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2