Engineer drilling relief well to permanently seal oil spill feeling pressure in final few feet

Man drilling relief well feeling a little pressure

NEW ORLEANS — The man responsible for guiding the relief well into the blown-out well that gushed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 85 days says he’s feeling the pressure as the final few feet of digging approaches.

In an e-mail Tuesday to The Associated Press, engineer John Wright says there’s always drama in the delicate final steps of digging a relief well.

But Wright also pointed out he’s dug 40 wells without missing. He compares it to golf, saying the more you practice, the luckier you get.

Wright will guide the relief well drill, about the size of a grapefruit, into the target, which is less than half the size of a dartboard. BP says that could happen as soon as Friday.

Wright says stopping the oil before the relief well finished has taken some of the pressure off him.