BP to pour cement down crippled well in next step to seal it [View All]

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BP to pour cement down crippled well in next step to seal it
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 5, 2010 -- Updated 0217 GMT (1017 HKT)


Washington (CNN) -- With its well-killing effort reported to be going "extremely well," BP plans to start pouring concrete into the crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.

The U.S. official overseeing the response to the spill, retired Adm. Thad Allen, has given BP a green light to pour cement on top of the 2,300 barrels of heavy drilling mud already sent down the well. The mud drove oil back into the reservoir in an operation known as a "static kill."

But Allen said BP should follow that with a second well-killing procedure that has been in the works as sort of an insurance policy -- pouring additional mud and cement through a relief well that's expected to be ready in mid-August.

"Based on the successful completion of the static kill procedure and a positive evaluation of the test results, I have authorized BP to cement its damaged well," Allen said Wednesday in a statement. "I made it clear that implementation of this procedure shall in no way delay the completion of the relief well."

Earlier Wednesday, Senior Vice President Kent Wells reported that the initial step in the static kill had gone "extremely well." The company began pumping the mud Tuesday afternoon, and the operation continued for some eight hours. BP pumped mud into the well from a ship on the surface mostly at the rate of five barrels a minute. That eventually increased to 10 and then 15 barrels a minute near the end of the operation, according to Wells.

"Everything proceeded exactly as we expected it to," he said.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/08/04/gulf.oil.spill/?hpt=T1#fbid=Pv-LrkaERcQ&wom=false