BP’s ‘top kill’ effort fails; falls back on oil spill containment strategy

WASHINGTON - BP’s ‘top kill’ operation to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has failed and now the company is planning a containment strategy that will cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking and cap it with valve.

According to the Washington Post, the attempted “top kill” of the well was abandoned late Saturday afternoon, leaving the huge Macondo field deep beneath the sea floor once again free to pump at least half a million gallons of crude a day into the Gulf.

I can say we tried. But what I can also say is this scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, or haven’t succeeded in that so far,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer, said in a late-day news conference.

The company intends to use robotic submarines that will sever the leaking.

Engineers will guide the LMRP cap onto the pipe. The cap is fitted with a grommet designed to keep out seawater and prevent the formation of slushy methane hydrates that bedeviled an earlier containment dome effort. The cap procedure will take four to seven days, officials say. (ANI)