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View Full Version : Prelim reports: BP's "Top Kill" procedure has plugged the oil leak



Little-Acorn
05-27-2010, 11:21 AM
Well, here's one report saying the leak has stopped. Sounds preliminary to me, I've see other reports saying the leak has slowed but not stopped. Early reports like this often get changed as later evidence comes out. You pays your money and takes your choice.

If/when BP does plug the leak completely (if they haven't already), can we expect Democrats (who have vilified, smeared and even threatened BP every day since they noticed the leak, some 3 weeks after it started, while offering no useful suggestions for solving the problem and blocking many state solutions) to thank BP, congratulate them for their strenuous and imaginative efforts to cope with a deepwater disaster that has never occurred before, and praise their efforts while still criticizing (legitimately) the mess the leak created?

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-top-kill-works-20100528,0,4282960.story

'Top kill' effort stops flow of oil into Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard admiral says

By Jim Tankersley
5:43 AM PDT, May 27, 2010

Engineers have stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low, but persists, he said.

Neither government nor BP officials have declared the effort a success yet. Officials caution that only after the cementing is complete and the well is sealed can the top kill be called successful.

Once engineers have reduced the well pressure to zero, they will begin to pump cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help that effort, he said, engineers are also pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.

Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well has run out of the fluid, or "mud," and that a second ship is on the way. He said he was encouraged by the progress.

"We'll get this under control," he said.

Allen also said that later today, an interagency team will release a revised estimate of how much oil was flowing from the well into the Gulf before the "top kill" effort began. The Coast Guard has estimated the flow at 5,000 barrels a day, but independent estimates suggest that it was much higher – perhaps tens of thousands of barrels a day.

avatar4321
05-27-2010, 03:08 PM
I'm hopefully optimistic.

cat slave
05-29-2010, 11:11 AM
Yeah, I hope too. Not only for the fishermen and the tourist industry and of
course the animals, if this is stopped it will take a lot of wind out of BOs
sails that enable him to flitter around and take attention away from the
dastardly deeds he performs daily. What will he take up next?

KarlMarx
05-30-2010, 09:12 AM
The latest I heard is that the leak was not plugged... I feel badly for the fisherman and all the others whose livelihoods are jeopardized by the spill....

I can't say it's all Obama's fault because it's not. However, his lack of any action whatsoever is just astounding (or is it?).

The very least he could have done, I think, was send troops down to help out with the cleanup (perhaps he has done this, but I haven't heard anything). Also, cutting out the red tape to speed up construction of the the berms that Governor Jindall wants erected might be another thing.

This is Obama's Katrina... as far as I am concerned, he is through. It's possible that the Sestak episode may escalate into another Watergate. I'm afraid that there will be other events coming down the pipe that will further emphasize Obama's incompetence at handling anything more substantial than taking a vacation or organizing a sit in.

But when you send in a community organizer to do a president's job... this is what you can expect.

avatar4321
05-30-2010, 08:37 PM
I don't blame Obama either. But his lack of action is astounding. I mean I always thought he was incompetant, but yeah...