Global General

BP successfully places cap over Gulf oil leak

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-05 05:28

HOUSTON: Oil and gas is being received onboard a tanker on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico following the successful placement of a containment cap over a ruptured undersea well, BP said on Friday.

"It is expected to take one or more days for flow rates of oil and gas to stabilize and it is not possible at this stage to estimate how much oil and gas will be captured by this containment system," BP said in a news release.

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The cap was placed over the leak following the cutting and removal of the riser pipe from the top of the BOP's lower marine riser package.

Like its previous oil-containing attempts, BP said this operation also has never before been deployed at 5,000 feet under water, where the blown-out well is located, and that "the containment system's efficiency, continued operation, and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured".

The cap can not plug the leak but can capture most of the runaway oil. BP said work still continues on two relief wells, which is considered the most certain way to stop the leak.

The Macondo well which was once connected to the Deepwater Horizon rig has so far bled 21 million to 45 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, eclipsing the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to be the worst spill in US history, according to official estimates.