Deepwater Horizon: Containment cap work in progress

Offshore staff

ROGER, Louisiana – The containment cap system that aims to capture and produce the oil and gas coming from the damaged well is in place and in the process of coming to full function according to Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander for the deepwater BP oil spill.

Speaking at a press conference this morning, Allen said the vents on the cap are being closed and the nitrogen gas pressure inside the cap is being reduced. The process is expected to be complete sometime today, perhaps, providing there are no problems. The vents and nitrogen are part of the system on the containment cap designed to prevent hydrate formation.

If successful, the containment cap system will function to put the well onto production in the traditional sense, provided the seal around the seabed pipe does not fail. If there are problems, Allen said the next step might be to return the diamond wire cutter in a second attempt to make the seabed well pipe connection smoother which should improve the system function.

The surface attention offshore is focused on Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, while in Louisiana the attention is on remediation ashore and in shallow water.

06/04/2010