BP insists attempt to plug Gulf well is proceeding as planned despite stops and starts

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BP says attempt to plug Gulf well going as planned

ROBERT, La. — BP’s chief operating officer says the attempt to plug the gushing Gulf oil well is going basically according to plan.

Doug Suttles says the company has shot assorted junk into the well along with heavy drilling mud to try to overcome the pressure of the oil.

He says the job remains underway even though there have been stops and starts to the actual pumping of heavy mud into the well.

He says it’s important not to read too much into the pauses.

The oil has been flowing since the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20. The spill is now the worst in U.S. history.

Suttles also says the drilling of a second relief well has been suspended to prepare for a different way to try to cut off the oil if the top kill doesn’t work.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

COVINGTON, La. (AP) — The grainy video of mud, gas and oil billowing from the seafloor has become an Internet sensation — a sort of warm-weather version of TV’s Yule Log — as Americans watch to see whether BP’s effort to plug the gusher in the Gulf of Mexico succeeds.

BP warned on Friday that it could be Sunday or later before the outcome of the cliffhanger becomes clear. And scientists cautioned that few conclusions can be drawn with any certainty from watching the spillcam coverage of the “top kill.” But they said the video seemed to suggest BP was gaining ground.

In an operation that began Wednesday, BP has been pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well in hopes of choking it off and putting an end to what is already the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, at anywhere from 18 million gallons to 40 million by the government’s estimate.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said that the denser-than-water mud was able to push down the oil and gas coming up at great force from underground, but it had not overwhelmed the gusher or stopped the flow.

A top kill has never been attempted 5,000 feet underwater, and public fascination is high.

BP, under pressure from Congress, made available a live video feed of what is going on underwater, and about 3,000 websites were showing a version of it that the PBS “Newshour” offered for free. On Thursday alone, show spokeswoman Anne Bell said, more than a million people watched it. Many found it hypnotic.

“It made me wonder how I use energy and if this situation could teach us how much energy we use ourselves,” said Jeb Banner, 38, a web design and marketing company owner in Indianapolis who has been looking at the feed every hour or so since before the top kill started. “It felt like a historic moment.”

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama visited the coast to see the damage as he tried to emphasize that his administration was in control of the crisis, which began April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform blew up. Eleven workers were killed.

“I’m here to tell you that you are not alone, you will not be abandoned, you will not be left behind,” he told people in Grand Isle, where the beach has been closed by gobs of oil and the frustration and anger are palpable. “The media may get tired of the story, but we will not. We will be on your side and we will see this through.”

Since the top kill started, it has often been unclear just how it is going. For most of the day Thursday, BP and Coast Guard officials gave the impression that mud was being pumped continuously into the well, when, in fact, BP was in the middle of what it later said was an 18-hour pause to assess its efforts and bring in more mud.

On Friday, reporters received a note from a BP spokesman saying information on the top kill is now considered “stock-market sensitive” and updates can be provided only in “formal settings,” though BP’s CEO made the rounds of morning news shows after that to talk about it.

Watching the video could offer clues to who is winning in the battle — BP or the oil — said Tony Wood, director of the National Spill Control School at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. If the stuff coming out of the pipe is jet black, it is mostly oil and BP is losing. If it is whitish, it is mostly gas and BP is also losing.

If it is muddy brown, as it was Friday, that may be a sign that BP is starting to achieve success, he said. That “may in fact mean that there’s mud coming up and mud coming down as well,” which is better than oil coming out, Wood said.

Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama, said the camera appeared to show mostly drilling mud leaking from the well Friday morning, and two of the leaks appeared a little smaller than in the past, suggesting the top kill “may have had a slight but not dramatic effect.”

BP has brought in about 2.5 million gallons of drilling mud for the top kill. Crews also injected bridging material — pieces of fibrous matter — to help suppress the oil — late Thursday evening.

BP CEO Tony Hayward said Friday morning the effort was progressing as planned and had a 60 to 70 percent chance of success, the same odds he gave before the maneuver.

“Clearly I’m as anxious as everyone in America is to get this thing done,” he said.

Johnson said he was not surprised it was taking so long because there were so many potential complications. Scientists have said that the high-pressure flow of mud could make the spill worse by blowing new holes in the damaged machinery or flushing out any debris clogging it.

“There are really good reasons why BP isn’t saying, ‘Oh, we’ve got it fixed,’” Johnson said.

Billy Ward, a developer who was building a gated fishing community that is now on hold because of the spill, said that Obama’s visit was for show and that there was really nothing the president could do.

“It’s the unknown that’s killing us,” said Ward, who comes to Grand Isle with his family every weekend to stay in their beach house. “We don’t know if it’s going to be six months or six years before we get back to normal, if ever. All we can do is pray.”

Online: www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/

Associated Press Writers Seth Borenstein, Jonathan Landrum, Brian Skoloff and David Bauder contributed to this report.