BP Cuts Riser From Leaking Oil Well, Prepares Cap (Update2)

BP Cuts Riser From Leaking Oil Well, Prepares Cap (Update2)
June 03, 2010, 12:11 PM EDT

By Katarzyna Klimasinska and Jessica Resnick-Ault


June 3 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc sheared away the riser from its leaking Gulf of Mexico well, a precursor to the company’s attempt to lower a cap that would divert oil to ships on the surface.

Setting a device on the leak to capture oil will take a “couple of hours,” U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a press conference today in Metairie, Louisiana. Cutting away the riser allows London-based BP to mount a cap on top of the blowout preventer, a five-story tall stack of safety valves.

It also means the oil leak is no longer constrained by kinks that formed when the riser, consisting of pipe and fittings that connected the well to the drilling rig, broke off the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 and sank two days later. Any potential boost in the leak rate because of the cut is unknown, Allen said.

more...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-03/bp-cuts-riser-from-leaking-oil-well-prepares-cap-update2-.html