Gulf of Mexico oil spillBP's top kill effort stops oil flow

Published 28 May 2010

BP, using a top kill device, last night managed to stop the flow of gas and oil from the wellhead into the Gulf; commander of U.S. Coast Guard says the company managed to “stabilize the wellhead”

Video feed showing some of the "top kill" equipment // Source: xinhuanet.com

BP’s top kill effort to plug a leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico appears have stopped the flow of oil and gas and “stabilized the wellhead,” according to news reports.

The U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told New Orleans radio show WWL First News, “They’ve stopped the hydrocarbons from coming up. They’ve been able to stabilize the well head, they are pumping mud down it.”

Allen told the station the task is to now ensure the mud can hold the oil and gas back long enough for them to cap the well. “The goal is to put enough mud down the well bore to the point where there is no pressure exerted back by the hydrocarbons and then allow a cement plug to be put in place,” he said.

Reuters quotes Allen to say that the next twelve to eighteen hours will be “very critical” in the effort to stop the gusher which has sent thousands of barrels of oil into the fragile ecosystem there. Allen spoke on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said on the same program that the effort to plug the well was “going pretty well according to plan” and that they have also been pumping rubber and other material into the well, known as the “junk shot.”
Hayward said they planned to begin pumping more mud into the well again later today.