Does BP Have Any "Integrity" Left?

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July 13, 2010

New well cap to get 'integrity testing'

Posted: 10:35 AM ET

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CNN Wire Staff

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- A BP official praised the successful attachment Tuesday of a cap that could seal the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

He cautioned, however, that the company still must conduct more tests to determine if the effort will stop oil from gushing into the Gulf. Those tests started Tuesday morning.

"I couldn't be prouder of the team that put on the sealing cap. That really went extremely well," BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells told reporters in a conference call Tuesday.


Yet Wells noted that the cap represents just one step in a multi-step process. BP has said that the "sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured."

"People feel very good about what we accomplished in the last couple days," Wells said. "But the job is not over."

Wells said Tuesday the planned "integrity" test -- which will measure pressure inside the well -- is on schedule for later in the day. That testing will take anywhere from six to 48 hours. Higher pressure readings would mean the leak is being stopped, while lower pressure would mean oil is escaping from other parts of the well.

But first, workers are conducting seismic surveys around the well site to see if any hazards exist.

The cap could contain all the oil; the cap could contain some of the crude while ships on the water's surface collect the rest; or, under a worst-case scenario, there could be more damage to the well's casing, meaning that capping the well would not stop the oil from flowing.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is leading the federal response to the environmental disaster, said Monday that scientists checking the pressure inside the well will determine whether ships need to continue siphoning oil.

If oil collection is still necessary, BP said it has more resources at its disposal. The oil-gathering ship, the Helix Producer, was put in place Monday to recover oil, joining the Q4000, which is already active.

Allen said the new cap offers a significant advantage: four collection ships could connect to the well, rather than the maximum of three allowed by the old cap.

Over the next two to three weeks, 60,000 to 80,000 barrels (2.52 million to 3.36 million gallons) a day could be collected as part of the containment process, Wells has said.

Work has been continuing on two relief wells, the ultimate solution to fixing the problem. BP doesn't expect the first relief well work to be completed until August.

Scientists estimate that 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil have spewed daily from BP's breached well, causing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

The presidential commission tasked with investigating the Gulf oil gusher and making recommendations about the future of offshore drilling will continue its public meetings Tuesday. The National Oil Spill Commission has six months to determine what happened when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20 -- and how to prevent something similar from ever happening again.

A new moratorium on deepwater drilling issued by the U.S. Interior Department Monday has already played a prominent role in the hearings.

CNN's Campbell Brown contributed to this report.