Gulf Oil Spill: 2nd 'Top Hat' Containment Box Is On Its Way To Leak

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — A BP spokesman says a second, smaller oil containment box known as a "top hat" is being brought to the site of a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Spokesman Bill Salvin tells The Associated Press the box will be lowered to the seafloor, away from the plume, on Tuesday. He says undersea robots will position it over the gusher by Thursday.

The box is on a vessel in the containment zone right now. Salvin says the box won't be placed over the well right away so engineers can configure it properly and avoid the same kind of ice crystal buildup that stymied their first attempt at using a larger box.

More than 4 million gallons of oil have spewed from the well since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20. That total could eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster by Father's Day.

Comments

[Paul Dormody]

09:36 PM on 05/12/2010

The next idea to fix the spill is to take the 5 billion$ BP has made in the last 3 months,convert it into singles, and dump it all on the spill.Trouble is it might soak up the whole Gulf.

[BannedInBoston]

10:16 AM on 05/12/2010

Last night on this thread, I posted that my personal gas consumption was about 10 gal./week, almost all spent commuting to and from work. This worked out to about 500 gals./year, which I thought was on the low side nationally but it turns out that that's about the average American's gas consumption/year is a bit over 500 gals. (I looked it up. Average total miles = 12,000, average mileage = 22.5 mpg => 533 gals./year average.)

I couldn't believe that I didn't use a lot less than average (I'd just figured mine off the top of my head) This kept me awake last night, so I recalculated based on my actual total miles/year and came out quite a bit lower. I get about 25 mpg (mostly highway, almost all commuting) and drove about 7500 miles last year, which works out to about 300 gals. total per year. I know several people here use much less and I would be too if I could but at least it's less than 60% of the average.

My ideal is to be able to bike or hike to work, or work mostly at home (or just plain retire) but I just haven't been able to arrange this to date.

[mrJJ]

08:19 AM on 05/12/2010

Size and density of Gulf of Mexico oil spill, May 12: A graphic representation

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/size_and_density_of_gulf_of_me_3.html

[Jeremy Shere]

08:08 AM on 05/12/2010

Is it just me, or does it seem like BP is just sort of trying things to see what might work? Was there no time-tested emergency plan ready to go in case of a massive leak? Apparently not. I wonder if other oil companies do have better safety strategies. Does anyone know of an instance where an undersea well exploded and was successfully contained?

[stevebol]

08:21 AM on 05/12/2010

I'm not positive but Timor off the coast of Australia may be the most similar. It was in deep water and they succeeded in putting in a relief well. It wasn't easy.

[playera]

09:59 PM on 05/13/2010

And, why not get a third hat to the gusher? You know, in case they just might need it.

[mrJJ]

08:02 AM on 05/12/2010

Amateur Video Of Gulf Oil Slick - Worse Than BP Admits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=did-S6XbpMM

[raphaelbonee]

07:35 AM on 05/12/2010

Were I a betting man I'd bet BP on the cheap didn't set casing it just pour the cement around the drill hoping the weight of the concrete would keep it in place. The oil seeped around the cement instead of through the drill hole as it was withdrawn.

This makes sense because the only reason to be lowering a box around the hole is to try sealing it again with concrete because theres no pipe to plug.

[sonofsamphm1c]

05:34 AM on 05/12/2010

Outraged Americans will demand the end to offshore drilling off their chemically wasted, nevertheless pristine beaches.

I mean why not? Let the Brazilians drill more than two-dozen wells in their 7,000-foot ocean and then the angry Americans can zoom past their local BP stations and buy Brazilian offshore-sourced gasoline from ExxonMobil.

Feels great to save the environment. I can dig it.

[davidgoldmandg]

04:59 AM on 05/12/2010

Why dont they just hang a bell on top of the gusher, pump up the water and oil into a ship's hold, and pump out the water from the hold's bottom.

Then they can bring the oil back and refine and sell it like any other oil.

Will at least buy some time to get a plug in place.

[Bama Girl]

09:55 AM on 05/12/2010

They aren't that smart.

[stevebeast]

03:48 PM on 05/13/2010

thats what they are trying to do. the water froze and plugged the first "bell" so they are going to try a smaller one and pump warm water into it.

[davidgoldmandg]

08:06 PM on 05/13/2010

Got it - thanks.

But pumping warm water may not work because specific heat of water is so much lower than heat of melting of ice... Why is water freezing? is it sea water? It must be the water wich comes out with the oil...

Guess they should:

1. Have a bigger pipe.

2. The hot water they pump down should be saturated salt water.

[USABrazil]

04:54 AM on 05/12/2010

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
-- Native American Proverb

Good nite to yous*....

[wassilij]

04:29 AM on 05/12/2010

Whats needed is a corporate death penalty.......If any corporation like BP or Halburton causes a disaster to occur.....The entire corporation including all assets are dismantled and all assets liquidated to pay for the cleanup and economic losses felt by those whose livelihoods they have destroyed.........making it RETROACTIVE!!!.......NO more Halburton...or BP or whatever CORPORATIONS were involved!!!
Not a single one of these Rat B@stards could man up and take responsibility for this disaster that has ruined the entire southern coast of the US...How much longer are WE the people going to allow these CORPORATIONS to destroy our life support system?.......DESTROY THESE CORPORATIONS....Starting NOW !!....No second chances....no 75 mile limit BS,,,,
If this was the policy from the beginning....Safety measures and plans ABC and D would be in place.....the only plan they had was called GREED
.......One coast down ......Two to Go.....Are you willing to take that risk? Make them pay...with a CORPORATE DEATH PENALTY!!!....RETROACTIVE!!

[leroysgame]

07:24 AM on 05/12/2010

It is worse than you think. I invented the product in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5oZ8baaBOY and it works instantly and the oil can be recovered from the product. But instead the madness continues. Dispersants and controlled burns(insitu-burns) do not work and skimmers are a joke! Dispersants are petroleum chemicals which the oil company blows onto or into the spill to disperse the crude so that it sinks and thins more quickly and therefore is less visible. In situ burning is the term oil companies use to describe the practice of blowing highly flammable chemicals (gasoline) onto the spill in great enough volumes to maintain combustion on the water. Not all of it will burn off and it will not burn the crude which is floating slightly below the surface, but it also acts as a dispersant!! (in fact adds to the chemical damage)The company supplying the chemicals (gasoline and dispersants) is raking in huge profits from the insurance companies and taxpayers emergency funds, and that company would be…..wait for it…THE OIL COMPANY!!

[leroysgame]

07:33 AM on 05/12/2010

Sea turtles and dolphins washing up dead in the gulf and officials saying "cannot say that it is connected to the spill!! What the hell!! When oil is introduced to the surface of water, it instantly spreads out until it is only a blue haze like the surface of water puddles in the city. This does not mean the oil is any less in volume, just that it is not so offensive to the eye. It will still end up doing the same damage as if it arrived in a wave and not a cloud or haze. The reason that BP does not show the under water pictures is because crude oil starts to sink within hours of being spilled into water. It then “blups” to the surface over the next 2 years and arrives on our beaches as “tar balls”. While it is on the bottom, it destroys that environment and contaminates all marine life that manages to escape the initial onslaught. As the oil is sinking, it is settling on and near the bottom of the ocean so that the clouds you see from aerial and satellite photos are just a glimpse of the clouds settling near the bottom. That cloud is thousands of times bigger than the ones near the surface, kinda like the iceburg to the Titanic!! BP does not want you to see this nor the dead and dying marine life down there. But it will soon settle..

[sonofsamphm1c]

12:20 PM on 05/12/2010

Stories about an unusually large number of dead sea turtles washing up on Texas beaches appeared in the Houston Chronicle before the rig exploded.

[iyamchazz]

02:33 AM on 05/12/2010

If you know the song, feel free to sing along.
Now it's got the Top Hat...
But will it get the Tails?

[cnun3z]

02:33 AM on 05/12/2010

Plan A: deny the size of the spill
Plan B: build giant band-aid
Plan C: ???????
Plan D: Profit

[GaryCharles]

02:24 AM on 05/12/2010

I believe some oil company CEO's would plug-up this well.

[BambooHarvester]

02:20 AM on 05/12/2010

In a civil society the heads would be displayed on pikes.
~

[Amalek]

01:50 AM on 05/12/2010

The solution for this is to nuke it. Drop our biggest, baddest nuclear bomb on the bottom of the ocean and detonate it. Properly done it will incinerate all the oil in that deposit in one massive fireball. The resulting tsunami will clean up our shorelines and the massive hole that will be created will lower sea levels sufficiently to handle several decades of global warming. Most of the shrimp in the gulf will be cooked and can easily be gathered by fishermen, and countless new genetic varieties of seafood will likely result to our culinary pleasure. Who could not support such a grand idea?

[lynn1219]

03:30 AM on 05/12/2010

Now, there's a plan! Fanned.