BP to try well kill Tuesday
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BILOXI Mississippi (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Friday it could seal its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well by next week as U.S. lawmakers prepared to vote on reforms that would put tougher restrictions on offshore drilling.
Incoming BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said the company would attempt a "static kill" operation on Tuesday to try to plug the broken undersea Macondo well that caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
"We want to absolutely kill this well. The static kill will be attempted on Tuesday. The relief well by the end of the month (August)," said Dudley, BP's top executive on the Gulf oil spill who will replace Tony Hayward as CEO on October 1.
The "static kill" will involve pumping drilling mud and cement into the well from the top, while the relief well is expected to be a permanent solution.
The U.S. official overseeing the spill response, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, had said on Thursday he hoped the static kill could be performed as early this weekend.
But at a briefing on Friday Allen said the procedure would be delayed until Tuesday to clean out debris and sediment found in the relief well, which has bored deep into the earth and will plug the leak from the bottom.
Once cleaned out, BP can finish cementing the pipe into the relief well and move forward with a static kill, Allen said.
The ruptured BP well has been temporarily sealed for two weeks, and U.S. officials are cautiously optimistic the spilled oil is dissipating.
In his first news conference on the Gulf since being named to replace the much-criticized Hayward, Dudley stressed the British company's commitment to restoring the coast.
"We are scaling back the number of vessels offshore but we are not stopping cleanup operations by any means," he said. "We are not complacent about this at all."
Millions of gallons (litres) of oil have poured into the Gulf since April, when a rig exploded and sank, killing 11 workers and triggering the leak from the BP-owned well.
The spill has devastated the livelihoods of fishermen and other business owners along the Gulf Coast and presented a challenge to BP and to President Barack Obama's administration.
"This has been a real wake-up call for the oil and gas industry," Dudley said.
LIABILITY LIMITS
As BP prepared to permanently plug its blown-out well, lawmakers in Washington debated a bill that would tighten offshore drilling regulations.
Republicans who oppose the bill warned it would slash U.S. oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, a major supplier of domestic energy, and cut high-paying drilling jobs.
Democrats said it would make offshore drilling safer for workers and protect the environment from future oil spills like the one caused by BP that damaged wetlands and hurt the region's lucrative fishing and tourism industries.
"If you want to apologize for Big Oil, go right ahead, but the American people are not on your side on this one," Democratic Representative Jim McGovern told his Republican colleagues.
While the House was expected to approve the bill later on Friday, the legislation still has a long way to go before it can become law.
A similar bill is pending in the Senate, but it was unlikely it would pass before that chamber begins its summer recess on August 6.
A sticking point in the Senate is opposition from Republicans and some moderate Democrats to removing all liability limits oil companies would face for economic damages stemming from the BP disaster and any future spills.
Current law requires companies to only cover up to $75 million for damages to local economies. The BP spill could end up costing billions of dollars in lost tourism, fishing and other Gulf Coast revenues.
BP has said it will pay for all costs related to the spill and has created a $20 billion fund to compensate companies and individuals, but many lawmakers worry that the oil giant could put victims through years of litigation.
Dudley said BP was in the middle of an asset sale to help the company meet the costs of the spill cleanup.
"We have a $25-$30 billion asset sale around the globe. Hopefully people will realize that we are serious about meeting our financial obligations," he said.
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