NEW ORLEANS — BP and government officials Thursday said they plan to remove the damaged existing blowout preventer on top of the company’s troubled oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and replace it with a new, stronger one, a move they said will allow them to safely carry out the final “kill” of the well but will delay the ultimate fix until after Labor Day.
Earlier in the crisis, BP had estimated that it would be able to complete the final step to plug the well, called the “bottom kill,” in mid-August. But because the well has not been spewing oil since July 15 — when crews affixed a giant cap on the blowout preventer — federal and company experts have decided to move slowly and carefully, preparing thoroughly for possible further complications.
“We’re taking a little more time than we would have otherwise to make sure we’ve got everyone on board with what we’re doing in a very systematic approach,” BP senior vice president Kent Wells said.
In a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took fire on a controversial “oil-spill budget” released Aug. 2 estimating that a large part of the oil released into the gulf by the Deepwater Horizon spill was gone.
In fact, perhaps three-fourths of the pollutants from the 4.1 million barrels spewed into the gulf are still lingering in the environment, Bill Lehr, senior scientist with NOAA’s Office of Restoration and Response, conceded under questioning.
“This is a continuing operation,” Lehr said. “The spill is far from over.”
Lehr said booming and burning probably only managed to clean up about 10 percent of the spilled oil. Much of the oil has evaporated or dispersed but remains a source of hydrocarbons in the ecosystem, he said. An unknown amount washed up on beaches and is no longer polluting the gulf, he added.
The Aug. 2 report rendered more optimistic figures because it included the 800,000 barrels of oil captured directly by ships, Lehr said under questioning by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Agency scientists also have not tallied the significant quantities of methane gas and heavy metals released into the gulf as a result of the spill, Lehr said.
