GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[gtalum]

Just so it's clear, the sun smiley in my post was sarcastic.

[Brent]

NEW ORLEANS – BP says oil from its broken well has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April.

[fwbbreeze]

http://www.aolnews.com/gulf-oil-spill/article/bp-new-cap-on-well-fully-closed-no-oil-going-into-gulf/19556238?icid=main|main|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fgulf-oil-spill%2Farticle%2Fbp-new-cap-on-well-fully-closed-no-oil-going-into-gulf%2F19556238

[srainhoutx]

Hoping the pressure test is a success. Fingers crossed!

[JTD]

As Mark Halperin of Time Magazine wrote yesterday "too little too late."

The damage across the sociopoliticoeconomicoenvironmental (not really a word I know) spectrum has already been done.

[KWT]

Yeah thats fair enough but at least we are seeing movement in the right direction now.

[gtalum]

This is good news. They're monitoring pressure to see if it will hold. Let's all hope it does. If it doesn't, then they'll still keep oil out of the Gulf by "producing" it to ships topside, but that effort would have to stop in the event of bad weather. If the well can stay shut-in, then it's just a waiting game until the relief wells are completed.

[x-y-no]

Has there been any report what pressure they"re getting yet?

Keeping fingers crossed that this works.

[Stephanie]

I'm "cautiously" optimistic on this as well - but it's a great start.

Keeping everything crossed that this is the beginning of the end of the geyser.

[kevin]

Mission accomplished!

[Rainband]

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

?????????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPCBhWyF_14

[KWT]

Well hopefully it holds and a long term solution is being worked on, because from what I've heard this will hold things for the short term and give BP more time to think of a long term solution.

[thetruesms]

As Mark Halperin of Time Magazine wrote yesterday "too little too late."

The damage across the sociopoliticoeconomicoenvironmental (not really a word I know) spectrum has already been done.

Good thing he's not running the show, I can just imagine how that would go - "Well, the damage is done, no point in trying to stop it now".

Mission accomplished!

That's a nice little touch of irony

Well hopefully it holds and a long term solution is being worked on, because from what I've heard this will hold things for the short term and give BP more time to think of a long term solution.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. This just buys some time until a more permanent solution can be applied. I wouldn't even be surprised if the pressures mean they have to start opening it up again a little bit to make sure it doesn't fail. Apparently if this thing were to fail, it would likely be in a way that would bring us to a whole new level of bad.

[KWT]

Yeah thats gotta be a fear, obviously its like damning, if it breaches the pressure would shot up the oil pretty rapidly back up so we need to hope it holds for long enough.

[gtalum]

Well hopefully it holds and a long term solution is being worked on, because from what I've heard this will hold things for the short term and give BP more time to think of a long term solution.

There's no thinking. The long-term solution is the relief well. This saves a few weeks of oil pouring into the Gulf, though, if it works.

They'll probably reopen some valves after the 48-hour pressure test and "produce" the oil at the surface. If the well passes the pressure test, though, it means they can safely shut the valves when a hurricane or tropical storm threatens, rather than just leaving the oil to flow into the Gulf.

The danger isn't high pressure, it's actually low pressure. Low pressure will indicate that oil is escaping somewhere underground (possibly to pop up somewhere else). High pressure means the oil is being contained within the well-bore and the reservoir.

[Category 5]

Now that we can breathe for a minute with the oil stopped, alternative energy anyone?

[somethingfunny]

Now that we can breathe for a minute with the oil stopped, alternative energy anyone?

If BP were in charge of the hydroelectric plant on the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead would be in Palm Springs by now. It's a nice thought - I'll be happy if this situaton just gets more big corporations to watch their Ps and Qs more carefully.

Thank God the leak is stopped. Now comes the long cleanup.

[KWT]

The danger isn't high pressure, it's actually low pressure. Low pressure will indicate that oil is escaping somewhere underground (possibly to pop up somewhere else). High pressure means the oil is being contained within the well-bore and the reservoir.

Thats very interesting to hear but thinking about it now it makes plenty of sense, obviously if there is high pressure its all being contained but if there is low pressure then the oil is escaping thus allowing the pressure to decrease there.

Ok, think I have it sorted in my heads now thanks!

[Stephanie]

This is really great news. Now there's a "finite" amount of oil to be cleaned up and not an "infinite" amount. Unfortunately, yes, the damage is done, but we must do the best we can to try and clean up as much as possible and learn from it all.