Top Kill Fails

Jane Van Ryan
Posted May 30, 2010

The engineers working on the Macondo well in the Gulf have abandoned the top kill procedure. Late yesterday afternoon, BP's Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles announced that the top kill and the junk shot did not plug the leaking well, so they are moving to the next option--the low marine riser package, or LMRP.

The LMRP involves using ROVs to make a clean cut through the riser at the top of the blowout preventer (BOP) with a high-tech device similar to a band-saw, and then lowering a new riser fitted with a sealing grommet to the existing riser. On the surface, the Discoverer Enterprise drillship will collect the escaping oil and natural gas. Suttles told reporters yesterday that the procedure could take four days and that the equipment is on scene and is ready for deployment.

BP also is stepping up efforts to clean up the oil that has washed ashore by hiring additional workers. Suttles said yesterday that the workers are likely to be housed in tent cities or in floating hotels close to the affected areas.

About the efforts to plug the well, Suttles said, "People want to know which technique is going to work, and I don't know. It hasn't been done in these depths, and that's why we've had multiple options working in parallel."