Engineers have stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government’s top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.
The “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting.
Once engineers had reduced the well pressure to zero, they were to begin pumping cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help in that effort, he said, engineers also were pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.
The article also says,
As of early Thursday morning, neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet, pending the completion of the cementing and sealing of the well.
Here’s the livestream from the site.
Meanwhile, FoxNews just reported that Minerals Management Service Elizabeth Birnbaum has been fired. I guess she was one of those “bad apples” she was talking about.
In other oil news, prepare to pay and pay more:
Obama to Suspend Arctic Oil Drilling Until 2011
Related reading:
MRC Study: Media Double Standard on Gulf Coast Disasters
This was the subject of today’s podcast, and later Daniel of Venezuela News and Views joined to talked about the latest in the country.
