British Petroleum: Are They Fixing the Problem?
The big news for the last month has been the oil spill in America. The oil rig explosion which killed eleven workers has sent a minimum of 12,000 barrels into the Gulf of Mexico every day. That is correct, every single day. The question that remains is how much longer is this going to happen and why can the oil suppliers British Petroleum officials simply not “plug the hole”? The answer to that is because the oil is flowing out as such a rapid rate it would be akin to trying to shaking a Coca-Cola, opening the top and then trying to close the top as the contents spray outwards. This is a simplified version of course. Imagine this at a million times the effort underneath 1.5 kilometers of water.
Mr. Tony Hayward, the BP executive and spokesman says that things are progressing but that the “top kill method” they are using to stop the leak was not previously attempted at the depths of the 1.5km (5000 feet). This has made things considerably more difficult. It has also cost British Petroleum a total of 640 million pounds ($930million). The methods used to pump mud into the hole are not proving successful; however it appears that the follow up method may do just that.
How exactly are they planning to fix the giant flow that now covers 110km of coastline in Louisiana? As of now BP has placed a machine called a blowout preventer over the set of safety valves that failed to work. This machine is blowing in mud from a ship just above water’s surface. This mud is pumped in under extremely high pressure. The purpose of the mud is to clog the well so that a permanent cement cover can be place over the well. If the mud does not work, a system called a “junk shot” will be injected into the same machine and space. This consists of items such as tyres, rope and golf balls. Apparently BP does know something about recycling. Once the oil is finally stopped from flowing, the cement will be pumped in through the blowout preventer.
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