NEW ORLEANS — In a nail-biting day across the Gulf Coast, engineers struggled to make sense of puzzling pressure readings from the bottom of the ocean Friday to determine whether BP’s capped oil well was holding tight.
Halfway through a critical 48-hour window, the signs were promising but far from conclusive.
Kent Wells, a BP vice president, said on an evening conference call that engineers had found no indication that the well has started leaking underground.
“No news is good news,” Wells said. “I guess that’s how I’d say it.”
BP closed the vents on the new, tight-fitting cap Thursday, and crude stopped from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since the April 20 oil-rig explosion.
Engineers are keeping watch over the well for a two-day period in a round-the-clock vigil to see whether the cap is strong enough to hold back the oil, or whether there are leaks either in the well or the ocean floor.
One mysterious development was that the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the crisis.
Pressure rising slowly
Pressure readings after 24 hours were about 6,700 pounds per square inch and rising slowly, Allen said, below the 7,500 psi that would clearly show the well was not leaking. He said pressure continued to rise between 2 and 10 psi per hour. A low pressure reading, or a falling one, could mean the oil is escaping.
Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running lower three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak down in the well.
But Allen said a seismic probe of the surrounding ocean floor found no sign of a leak in the ground.
“This is generally good news,” he said. But he cautioned, “We need to be careful not to do any harm or create a situation that cannot be reversed.”
He said the testing would go on into the night, at which point BP might decide whether to reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill into the ocean again.
Benton Baugh, president of Radoil Inc. in Houston and a National Academy of Engineering member who specializes in underwater oil operations, warned that the pressure readings could mean that an underground blowout could occur. He said the oil coming up the well might be leaking out underground and entering a geological pocket that might not be able to hold it.
But Roger Anderson, a professor of marine geology and geophysics at Columbia University, said the oil pressure might be rising slowly not because of a leak but because of some kind of blockage in the well.
“If it’s rising slowly, that means the pipe’s integrity’s still there. It’s just getting around obstacles,” he said. He added that “any increase in pressure is good, not bad.”
Uncertainties ahead
Even if the cap passes the test, more uncertainties lie ahead: Where will the oil already spilled go? How long will it take to clean up the coast? What will happen to the region’s fishermen? And will life on the Gulf Coast ever be the same again?
“I’m happy the well is shut off, that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Tony Kennon, mayor of hard-hit Orange Beach, Ala. But, “I’m watching people moving away, people losing their jobs, everything they’ve got. How can I be that happy when that’s happening to my neighbor?”
Cade Thomas, a 38-year-old fishing guide from Pine, La., said the whole mentality of the place is different.
“It’s all changed dramatically. The fishing stories aren’t there,” he said. “There’s no stories to tell except where we went to today and how much oil we saw.”
Other developments
Let’s wait and see, Obama says: President Barack Obama said Friday that a new cap on the ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well is good news, but he cautioned an anxious public not to “get too far ahead of ourselves.” He said there still remains an “enormous cleanup job,” as well as the job of ensuring that residents and business owners are being compensated for their losses.
Spill could be evident for decades: The slicks on the surface will disappear quickly if the cap holds. But the spilled oil will remain in the water, on beaches, in marshes and in the lives of Gulf Coast residents for years. Judging by a comparably sized 1979 spill off Mexico’s coast, tar balls and patties could keep washing ashore for decades.
BP tab for economic losses at $201 million: BP says it has paid out $201 million so far to individuals and businesses for economic losses from the oil spill. More than 32,000 claimants got one or more payments in the past 10 weeks.
Congress eyes abandoned gulf wells: A lead congressional committee investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has broadened its inquiry, now checking whether tens of thousands of abandoned gulf oil and gas wells are leaking or even being monitored for leaks. The Associated Press
