BP dome fails to stop oil leak

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=125870§ionid=3510203


British Petroleum (BP) has failed in its first attempt to contain oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico with a metal box as crystallized gas fills the structure.

Engineers from the UK oil giant tried to lower a four-story containment dome on a ruptured oil well in a move seen as the best short-term way to stem the flow from the fissure.

But they had to pull up the 98-ton contraption on Saturday as gas hydrates, essentially slushy methane gas, blocked the oil from being siphoned out the top of the box.

"I wouldn't say it's failed yet. What I would say is what we attempted to do last night didn't work because these hydrates plugged up the top of the dome," Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, told reporters.

"What we're currently doing, and I suspect it will probably take the next 48 hours or so, is saying, 'Is there a way to overcome this problem?'"

Having predicted hydrates, BP officials had earlier warned that there was no guarantee that the technique will work at such depths. But they did not expect the volumes they encountered after lowering the dome nearly a mile (1.6 km) to the sea floor.

Possible solutions may involve heating the area or adding methanol to break up the hydrates, Suttles said.

The US is faced with an economic and ecological disaster targeting beaches, wildlife refuges and fishing grounds in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

More than three million gallons of crude has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since April 20, when an explosion caused by a bubble of methane gas ruptured the oil rig, killing at least eleven people.

Some call the oil slick the worst environmental disaster in US history.