BP CEO: "Top Kill" Working but More Time Needed
British Petroleum's efforts to plug the massive gusher that's spewed up to 40 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico appear to be "partially successful," though it will still take 48 hours to assess their effectiveness, BP's CEO told CBS News.
"The top kill is proceeding broadly in line with our plan. … Clearly I'm as anxious as everyone in America is to get this thing done," Tony Hayward said on "The Early Show" Friday.
Hayward said that "nothing has gone wrong so far," and the company's confidence "remains around 60 or 70 percent."
"But because this is completely untested and we're learning as we go, we'll need to recognize those facts, I'm afraid. I really wish it was different. I really do. But it's not."
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
Hayward said the first phase of the job - pumping heavy mud into the well - was completed Thursday. A second phase, pumping "loss control material into the blowout preventer to try and create a bridge … against which we could pump" was completed early Friday. Another round of mud-pumping was set to begin later on in the day.
"So what we've done is demonstrated that the technology, which has never been used a mile beneath the seabed, is working. We've learned a lot about the pressure in the blowout prevent and the pressure in the well and we're continuing to execute the program as planned. I believe it will be around 48 hours before we'll have clarity as to whether or not it has been successful," he said.
On Friday, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said heavyweight mud was able to push down the oil and gas coming up at great force from underground, but it has not overwhelmed the gusher or stopped the flow.
If the efforts to plug the leak with mud work, Hayward said the company would seal the well with cement.
Five weeks into the disaster, which has dwarfed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill to become the worst in U.S. history, BP and the White House have become targets of an increasingly frustrated public. A CBS News poll earlier this week found that 70 percent of Americans disapproved of BP's handling of the spill. Just 45 percent were satisfied with the Obama administration's actions.
On Thursday, President Obama addressed the criticism, stating that "I take responsibility" for the oil spill response.
Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Louisiana Friday to assess the damage and response efforts.
For his part, Hayward echoed the president's statement and said his company is at fault for the catastrophe.
"I think it's self-evident that we … caused this. We've said all along that this is our responsibility. And we're taking it very seriously. We're throwing everything at this to try and do everything we can to eliminate the leak, to contain the oil on the surface, and to defend the shoreline. A cup of oil on the beach is failure as far as I'm concerned."
If the top kill fails, BP's next best hope for controlling even part of the leak is a tinier version of something that has already been tried: a steel containment box to cap the well. A 100-ton box lies junked on the ocean floor, abandoned by BP after ice-like crystals clogged it.
While BP officials say the smaller box shouldn't have that problem, it's clearly not their preferred method. It has been sitting in reserve on the seabed for more than a week while engineers first tried to siphon off oil through a mile-long tube.
That succeeded in collecting 924,000 gallons before crews took it out to allow room for the top kill attempt.
If the small box doesn't work, BP officials say they will go back to the tube, crossing their fingers that a relief well still weeks away from being drilled far enough to affect the leak will help stop the bleeding.
And even that's not a sure bet. Obama said Thursday that authorities insisted BP drill a second relief well as a back-up since such wells often miss their mark.
BP said in a regulatory filing Friday that it has spent $930 million so far responding to the ruptured well, including costs for cleanup and prevention work, drilling relief wells, and paying grants to Gulf states, damage claims and federal costs. BP says it's too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated.
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CBS/ AP "The top kill is proceeding broadly in line with our plan. … Clearly I'm as anxious as everyone in America is to get this thing done," Tony Hayward said on "The Early Show" Friday.
Hayward said that "nothing has gone wrong so far," and the company's confidence "remains around 60 or 70 percent."
"But because this is completely untested and we're learning as we go, we'll need to recognize those facts, I'm afraid. I really wish it was different. I really do. But it's not."
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
Hayward said the first phase of the job - pumping heavy mud into the well - was completed Thursday. A second phase, pumping "loss control material into the blowout preventer to try and create a bridge … against which we could pump" was completed early Friday. Another round of mud-pumping was set to begin later on in the day.
"So what we've done is demonstrated that the technology, which has never been used a mile beneath the seabed, is working. We've learned a lot about the pressure in the blowout prevent and the pressure in the well and we're continuing to execute the program as planned. I believe it will be around 48 hours before we'll have clarity as to whether or not it has been successful," he said.
On Friday, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said heavyweight mud was able to push down the oil and gas coming up at great force from underground, but it has not overwhelmed the gusher or stopped the flow.
If the efforts to plug the leak with mud work, Hayward said the company would seal the well with cement.
Five weeks into the disaster, which has dwarfed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill to become the worst in U.S. history, BP and the White House have become targets of an increasingly frustrated public. A CBS News poll earlier this week found that 70 percent of Americans disapproved of BP's handling of the spill. Just 45 percent were satisfied with the Obama administration's actions.
On Thursday, President Obama addressed the criticism, stating that "I take responsibility" for the oil spill response.
Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Louisiana Friday to assess the damage and response efforts.
For his part, Hayward echoed the president's statement and said his company is at fault for the catastrophe.
"I think it's self-evident that we … caused this. We've said all along that this is our responsibility. And we're taking it very seriously. We're throwing everything at this to try and do everything we can to eliminate the leak, to contain the oil on the surface, and to defend the shoreline. A cup of oil on the beach is failure as far as I'm concerned."
If the top kill fails, BP's next best hope for controlling even part of the leak is a tinier version of something that has already been tried: a steel containment box to cap the well. A 100-ton box lies junked on the ocean floor, abandoned by BP after ice-like crystals clogged it.
While BP officials say the smaller box shouldn't have that problem, it's clearly not their preferred method. It has been sitting in reserve on the seabed for more than a week while engineers first tried to siphon off oil through a mile-long tube.
That succeeded in collecting 924,000 gallons before crews took it out to allow room for the top kill attempt.
If the small box doesn't work, BP officials say they will go back to the tube, crossing their fingers that a relief well still weeks away from being drilled far enough to affect the leak will help stop the bleeding.
And even that's not a sure bet. Obama said Thursday that authorities insisted BP drill a second relief well as a back-up since such wells often miss their mark.
BP said in a regulatory filing Friday that it has spent $930 million so far responding to the ruptured well, including costs for cleanup and prevention work, drilling relief wells, and paying grants to Gulf states, damage claims and federal costs. BP says it's too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated.
More News Conference Coverage
Obama Defends Oil Spill Response, Cites Mistakes
Obama Reacts to MMS and Reponse
Obama: There's a Reason I Never Said "Drill, Baby, Drill"
Obama on Katrina Comparison: "I'll Let You Decide"
Obama's Critics "Don't Know the Facts"
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wjksea- You are still a complete loser. You have 0 understanding of the markets, capitalism, socialism, etc. You support OBAMA, you love social entitlements, yet you spew flip-flop garbage constantly. Do you remember you wanted social health care? For having read anything you have written, an individual would lose intelligence.
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Now let me tell ya, I know God created some greater than others and you are fine example of that but brother, I am disturbed and troubled by your trouble looking introspectively at yourself not to mention you so steadfast in your earthly ways that so much as a brother may grow you hold him to his earlier days.
There truly my friend is nothing wrong with growing and changing as a human being on this earth. Dear brother, we were not born to be perfect from day one. You are holding me to beliefs I once held claiming I'm a flip floppin'. My brother and friend in God, I'm not flip flopping at all, I've transcended to being a tea party activist.
As a tea party activist I"m feeling strong and part of a powerful movement. I don't have to think so hard and am able to focus on basic foundational points. One of those is the belief that government should not exist.
My dear brother in Jesus' name, I fear for you crawling me for the speck in my eye but not examining your own life and beliefs having the notion that they were perfect from day one and shall never change. What your beliefs you hold harbor inconsistencies which are cancerous to your soul.
You see my dear brother. You call the current president a socialist, a marxist but dear friend you are a closet one. I hear you looking to Obama to have done something and dear friend, he's a federal bureaucrat. Obama is the problem NOT the solution.
Politicians...all of them are federal bureaucrats and they all take from the taxpayer. They are all complete utter socialists but with each having their own personal special interests or the interests of the few they represent.
As for this oil volcano that is spewing beneath the gulf. I don't want to pay for someones else's problems so to all who hate socialism yet are calling for me and other americans to get involved who otherwise don't want government interference I say, please, in the name of God, not the demon socialism, DON'T TAX ME BRO !!!
In the words of Mel Gibson I cry to my God..... FREEDOM !!!!
Either of these methods will not only stop the flow, but save the well for future production and not waste the time drilling those two relief wells.
This top kill method they keep bally hooing, is not the answer, l'm no engineer, but, l do know that the oil coming from that well is coming out with tremendous force, and pressure, now you put something on top to mitigate the flow, ok so now what, pressure as the saying goes will bust a water pipe. Once you cap that pipe what they're not telling you is where will the pressure go? Its gonna build and build cause it can't get out, and, than, blow that mud and concrete back to the surface. The only thing thats gonna cut that flow is they turn off the flow. But, they want to save that well, cause they know theres about 300 years worth of oil in it. You're talking about trillions. Humans.
Instead of trying all these crazy rube-goldberg routines they need to be completely focused on containment until the secondary diagonal wells can use a tried and true "bottom kill" to choke off this runaway well.
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Taxpayers should pay for this oil mess in the Gulf? I thought that our ELECTED--get that I said elected-- officials were charged with making sure, through the legislative process, that there were proper controls in place BEFORE the drilling began! We can clearly see how that was working.
How about "WE THE people" start taking our responsibility seriously, by taking a closer look at the people we elect to legislate/administrate our laws, and regulations. When "WE THE PEOPLE" do our job right at the polls, and elect people that get the enforcement reulation right, because we demand it, then this type of event will become much less likely, and there will be effective plans in place should there ever be a problem.
Alas, we can't even get it right at the local level. In Fla. there are municipalities that legislate how, where, when, and even IF you can park your vehicles---ON YOUR OWN PROPERTY!!
Wake up Americans!! The responsibily is your's!!
I guess that is why you will pay for it!!