FoxNews.com
5/16/2010
In a major step toward containing a massive Gulf of Mexico oil leak, BP said a mile-long (1.6-kilometer-long) tube was funneling crude Sunday from a blown well to a tanker ship after three days of wrestling to get the stopgap measure into place on the seafloor.
The contraption was hooked up successfully and sucking oil from a pipe at the blown well Sunday afternoon after being hindered by several setbacks. Engineers remotely guiding robot submersibles had worked since Friday to place the tube into a 21-inch (53-centimeter) pipe nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) below the sea.
Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president for exploration and production, said during a news conference that the amount being drawn was gradually increasing, and it would take several days to measure it. Company spokesman Mark Proegler at the joint spill command center in Louisiana had initially said the tube was containing most of the oil coming from the pipe, which is contributing an estimated 85 percent of the crude in the spill.
In a statement Sunday, BP said that the tube was “successfully tested and inserted into the leaking riser, capturing some amounts of oil and gas.”
“While not collecting all of the leaking oil, this tool is an important step in reducing the amount of oil being released into Gulf waters,” BP said.
The article continues at FoxNews.com
And, from the Times of London, BP reduces oil leak as scientists find plumes of crude below sea
