Temporary cap that stopped oil gusher removed

From: www.boston.com...

NEW ORLEANS—Engineers removed a temporary cap Thursday that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's blown-out well in mid-July. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea, but crews were standing by with collection vessels just in case.

Well, how convenient that the cap of the never-ending oil pipeline is removed on the same day that a new rig event takes place? Not to mention the media attention focused on the hurricane! Well, I guess its time to cue up those old video feeds to see how bad it may get... It would make sense as the multimillion dollar clean up contracts are not finding any oil so a bit more needs to be "released" through another "setback" for there to still be work for all those involved. Also interesting how this occurs at the same time the markets are climbing in the first time in a few days...makes one wonder if some more manipulation is about to happen? As with anything BP has done, the real story isn't release for a few days and everything is "ok" until then...

[edit on 9/2/2010 by thomasblackraven]

here's you a pickled herring
to ponder.

After the first spill, BP sold some assets to
Apache.

Guess who is in a deal to buy portions
of the 2nd rig that just exploded?

Apache !!!!

Coincidence??? Afraid not !!!!

I've always wondered if the "temporary cap" was just used so they could find some type of solution to the well, since golf balls and human hair can't do the trick

I may be pretty simple minded, but I am slightly confused.

They took off the cap but there is no leaking? Did all the oil leaking from the sea floor even out the pressure or something? Why is there no leaking at this time?

Edit: My boyfriend (Who doesn't read ATS, but does his own research) says it's because they pretty much used Static Kill until it worked, and are now replacing the cap. I can't find any good sources, but perhaps this is it? I thought the Static Kill just kept failing.

[edit on 3-9-2010 by asianeko]

reply to post by asianeko


The cap, which weighs some 75 tons, was always intended as a temporary measure to stop the flow into the gulf. BP completed the "top kill" (pumping drilling mud and cement - forcing actually - down the pipe from surface ships) some time ago. The top cap remained in place as an additional safe guard. Please remember the top kill actually stopped the oil flow, so removing the cap didn't result in the gusher resuming. The cap was removed to install a new BOP over the plugged hole. The failed BOP was/is being removed because its not actually doing anything and investigators want to recover it and inspect it as part of a ongoing criminal investigation. BP is also going to (if they haven't already) conduct a "bottom kill", plugging the well, additionally, much further down the well bore. Once this is completed a new BOP (one that actually works) will be installed and the well will be considered officially dead.

Hope this helps.

reply to post by SlightlyAbovePar


Good explanation!

This is my understanding as well. The top kill worked and the BOP is being removed to allow it to be examined to help determine what happened and why it didn't work as it should have in the first place. It is being replaced by another BOP.

This was planned ahead of the recent accident in the gulf.

[edit on 4-9-2010 by LAinhabitant]

reply to post by SlightlyAbovePar



Yes that helped a lot, thank you! I was looking all around and I wasn't sure just what was going on. Kudos to you!