NEW ORLEANS — Crews started pumping cement Friday deep under the sea floor to permanently plug BP’s blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.
A BP spokesman said there no longer was a need to use mud in tandem with the cement because pressure from the well wasn’t an issue.
BP expects the well to be completely sealed today. The government had previously said it expected the well to be declared dead by Sunday.
Cement began flowing at 1:30 p.m. It was expected to flow for several hours and then take up to 24 hours to set.
The pumping of cement followed the successful intersection late Thursday between a relief well drilled nearly 2.5 miles beneath the floor of the gulf and the blown-out well.
An April 20 explosion killed 11 workers, sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
“I am ready for that cigar now,” John Wright, who led the team drilling the relief well, said in an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press from aboard the Development Driller III vessel.
Wright, who is not a BP employee but is working on a contract basis, had told AP in August that he was looking forward to finishing his mission and celebrating with a cigar, a dinner party with his crew and a trip somewhere quiet to unwind with his wife.
This relief well is the 41st he has successfully drilled.
