Weather forecasts in Gulf could force officials to speed up oil spill containment plans

Forecast for Gulf impacting spill containment plan

WASHINGTON — Rough weather forecasts in the Gulf of Mexico could force BP and Obama administration officials to speed up plans to connect a third containment vessel to the blown-out undersea oil well.

Weather has already delayed plans to hook up the Helix Producer containment vessel that could collect more than 1 million gallons of oil per day. Officials have been waiting until the Helix was in place before replacing the current “top cap” with a tighter-fitting “sealing cap”, a maneuver that requires eight days of calm weather.

Forecasters say that weather window is available now, leading officials to consider hooking up the Helix and replacing the cap at the same time. The simultaneous maneuver would temporarily decrease the amount of oil being contained, though officials say both the Helix and the new cap would increase the total amount of contained oil to about 3.3 million gallons a day.

National incident commander Thad Allen sent BP a letter Thursday asking about contingency plans in the event they have to proceed with the simultaneous maneuver. The oil company has 24 hours to respond.

(This version CORRECTS “barrels” to “gallons” in second paragraph.)