<font size="5"><Center>'Top Kill' fails,
sets back hopes to end spill</font size><font size="4">
Tricky maneuver fails after 72-hour effort;
BP moves to next option, one to capture oil;
Blow to BP and U.S. government.</font size></center>
Reuters
By Ed Stoddard
and Mary Milliken
May 29, 2010
VENICE, La./HOUSTON, May 29 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) said on Saturday the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.
The beleaguered London-based energy giant said its next option is a "lower marine riser package" that will not plug the well ruptured in a rig blast, but rather capture most of the oil on the sea floor and channel it to the surface for collection.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward called the containment cap "the best way to minimize the flow of oil into the Gulf" and said it would take around four days to put it in place.
Hayward had given top kill a 60 to 70 percent chance of success, but the procedure was fraught with risk because it had never been attempted at the depth of the well, a mile (1.6 km) beneath the sea.
"I am disappointed this operation did not work," Hayward said in a statement. "The team executed the operation perfectly and the technology worked without a single hitch."
The news was a blow to Gulf coast residents, whose communities are still on the mend from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and now have to contend with oil invading fragile marshlands and waters vital to wildlife and a lucrative commercial fishing industry.
Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser was about to address a crowd when he got news of the top kill failure.
"I didn't have the heart to tell them it didn't work," Nungesser told CNN.
The news also spells more trouble for U.S. President Barack Obama, who is struggling to convince Americans that his administration can handle the crisis. The plodding clean-up effort has sickened workers and left Gulf coast residents frustrated and angry.
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and unleashing an underwater torrent of oil that the government estimated at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons/1.9 million to 3 million liters) a day.
This week, the government showed that the Gulf disaster has now surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaskan waters.
<font size="4">RELIEF WELL TWO MONTHS AWAY</font size>
The bad news came over the beginning to a three-day weekend at a daily briefing by the U.S. Coast Guard and BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.
Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry said the news of the top kill failure was disappointing and that the best option for ending the spill was drilling a relief well which BP estimates will take two months.
BP's already tarnished reputation and its bottom line are likely to suffer further, as is the share price when markets re-open on Tuesday.
BP has thus far spent $940 million to try to plug the leak and clean up the sea and soiled coast.
The disaster has wiped out a quarter of its market value, or $50 billion, and its London-traded shares lost 5 percent on Friday alone as delays in the top kill made investors sell.
Top kill involved pumping heavy fluids known as drilling mud and other material into the well shaft to stifle the flow, then seal it with cement. Hayward said they pumped 30,000 barrels of mud at high pressure before giving up.
Although the Obama administration has squarely put the blame on BP, polls show Americans are losing faith in the government's ability to mitigate the disaster.
In his second visit to the Gulf in the 40-day crisis on Friday, Obama faced criticism that he responded too slowly. He assured people in Louisiana that they "will not be left behind" and that the "buck stops" with him.
There is not much Obama can do other than apply pressure to BP to get it right and put his best scientists in the room. The government has no deep-sea oil technology of its own.
<font size="4">COMPARISONS TO KATRINA</font size>
But that does not mean the public will forgive the first-term president, who is anxious to avoid comparisons to former President George W. Bush after his government's much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.
His political opponents, and even some prominent Democrats, are calling on him to take command of the situation. That kind of rhetoric could hurt his credibility ahead of congressional elections in November, where Democrats are poised to lose seats.
Still, BP gets worse marks from Americans for the lack of proper clean-up of the Louisiana coastline and the oil in the Gulf.
Federal regulators complained in an internal memo that BP had not adequately trained or equipped the 22,000 workers cleaning up the spill, some of whom have been sickened by the oil. The memo to Thad Allen, the Coast Guard admiral overseeing the government response, was obtained by McClatchy newspapers.
"These are not isolated problems," David Michaels, the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, wrote in the memo. "They appear to be indicative of a general systemic failure on BP's part, to ensure the safety and health of those responding to this disaster."
Suttles said, "It's clear that people have gotten sick and we need to figure out what we need to do to change that." But he said illness was not widespread among the workers. (Additional reporting by Kristen Hays in Houston, Jane Sutton and Pascal Fletcher in Miami; writing by Mary Milliken; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2812765520100530
sets back hopes to end spill</font size><font size="4">
Tricky maneuver fails after 72-hour effort;
BP moves to next option, one to capture oil;
Blow to BP and U.S. government.</font size></center>
Reuters
By Ed Stoddard
and Mary Milliken
May 29, 2010
VENICE, La./HOUSTON, May 29 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) said on Saturday the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.
The beleaguered London-based energy giant said its next option is a "lower marine riser package" that will not plug the well ruptured in a rig blast, but rather capture most of the oil on the sea floor and channel it to the surface for collection.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward called the containment cap "the best way to minimize the flow of oil into the Gulf" and said it would take around four days to put it in place.
Hayward had given top kill a 60 to 70 percent chance of success, but the procedure was fraught with risk because it had never been attempted at the depth of the well, a mile (1.6 km) beneath the sea.
"I am disappointed this operation did not work," Hayward said in a statement. "The team executed the operation perfectly and the technology worked without a single hitch."
The news was a blow to Gulf coast residents, whose communities are still on the mend from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and now have to contend with oil invading fragile marshlands and waters vital to wildlife and a lucrative commercial fishing industry.
Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser was about to address a crowd when he got news of the top kill failure.
"I didn't have the heart to tell them it didn't work," Nungesser told CNN.
The news also spells more trouble for U.S. President Barack Obama, who is struggling to convince Americans that his administration can handle the crisis. The plodding clean-up effort has sickened workers and left Gulf coast residents frustrated and angry.
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and unleashing an underwater torrent of oil that the government estimated at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons/1.9 million to 3 million liters) a day.
This week, the government showed that the Gulf disaster has now surpassed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaskan waters.
<font size="4">RELIEF WELL TWO MONTHS AWAY</font size>
The bad news came over the beginning to a three-day weekend at a daily briefing by the U.S. Coast Guard and BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles.
Coast Guard Admiral Mary Landry said the news of the top kill failure was disappointing and that the best option for ending the spill was drilling a relief well which BP estimates will take two months.
BP's already tarnished reputation and its bottom line are likely to suffer further, as is the share price when markets re-open on Tuesday.
BP has thus far spent $940 million to try to plug the leak and clean up the sea and soiled coast.
The disaster has wiped out a quarter of its market value, or $50 billion, and its London-traded shares lost 5 percent on Friday alone as delays in the top kill made investors sell.
Top kill involved pumping heavy fluids known as drilling mud and other material into the well shaft to stifle the flow, then seal it with cement. Hayward said they pumped 30,000 barrels of mud at high pressure before giving up.
Although the Obama administration has squarely put the blame on BP, polls show Americans are losing faith in the government's ability to mitigate the disaster.
In his second visit to the Gulf in the 40-day crisis on Friday, Obama faced criticism that he responded too slowly. He assured people in Louisiana that they "will not be left behind" and that the "buck stops" with him.
There is not much Obama can do other than apply pressure to BP to get it right and put his best scientists in the room. The government has no deep-sea oil technology of its own.
<font size="4">COMPARISONS TO KATRINA</font size>
But that does not mean the public will forgive the first-term president, who is anxious to avoid comparisons to former President George W. Bush after his government's much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.
His political opponents, and even some prominent Democrats, are calling on him to take command of the situation. That kind of rhetoric could hurt his credibility ahead of congressional elections in November, where Democrats are poised to lose seats.
Still, BP gets worse marks from Americans for the lack of proper clean-up of the Louisiana coastline and the oil in the Gulf.
Federal regulators complained in an internal memo that BP had not adequately trained or equipped the 22,000 workers cleaning up the spill, some of whom have been sickened by the oil. The memo to Thad Allen, the Coast Guard admiral overseeing the government response, was obtained by McClatchy newspapers.
"These are not isolated problems," David Michaels, the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, wrote in the memo. "They appear to be indicative of a general systemic failure on BP's part, to ensure the safety and health of those responding to this disaster."
Suttles said, "It's clear that people have gotten sick and we need to figure out what we need to do to change that." But he said illness was not widespread among the workers. (Additional reporting by Kristen Hays in Houston, Jane Sutton and Pascal Fletcher in Miami; writing by Mary Milliken; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2812765520100530
