Been watching the Stuck Saw on NPR. BP has hit a SNAG!
npr.org
Stuck diamond saw delays latest effort to contain spill
By BRETT CLANTON HOUSTON CHRONICLE
June 2, 2010, 10:23AM
BP was successful in shearing off one section of the mile-long riser pipe gushing oil at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but a massive saw has gotten stuck while making a second cut in the riser, holding up efforts to contain the leaking well, an official said today.
“Anybody that's ever used a saw knows every once in a while it will bind up. That's kind of what's happening there,” retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for Deepwater BP oil spill response, said at a news conference in Houma, La.
He said robot submarines are trying to move the riser pipe to dislodge the huge diamond-wire cutter, which had been attempting to slice through a piece of riser right above a huge stack of valves that sits atop BP's spewing Macondo well.
If the saw is able to resume cutting, then BP hopes as early as today to install a tight-fitting cap on top of the upper most part of that stack, known as the Lower Marine Riser Package, Allen said. That would let the company attach a pipe system to siphon off oil spewing from the well and send it to a ship on water's surface.
If the saw is broken, Allen said a backup cutter may have to be brought in, though he could not say how long that might take.
The stuck saw is the latest setback in BP's effort to halt the flow from its Macondo well, roughly 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. |
