BP says tube insertion into Macondo riser is under way

Houston (Platts)--14May2010/602 pm EDT/2202 GMT

BP's insertion of an extraction tube into the leaking Macondo wellhead
riser was "under way" Friday afternoon and the "hope is to begin operations
tonight," according to Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP's US
unit.

     Speaking during a telephonic press conference by the Deepwater Horizon
disaster task force in Robert, Louisiana, Suttles said the attempt to use the
previously announced insertion tool would come first while use of the
so-called "top hat" containment dome would come only as a backup if the
insertion tube fails to perform as expected.    

     "I know it is very difficult to predict," Suttles said. "We believe it
will work. The challenge is deploying it. Over the next day or two we will
know."

     The riser insertion tool is designed to enter the open riser inside a
stopper that will seal the neck of the riser and allow the tube to deliver oil
from the leaking well 4,993 feet to a vessel waiting on the surface above the
runaway well.

     "We have these two choices, riser insertion tool and top hat," said
Suttles. "Analysis showed the riser tool looks like the best option to try
first. If it is unsuccessful, top hat will be tried right after that."

     Top hat is an oil barrel-sized containment dome already waiting by the
wellhead on the sea floor, Suttles said.

     It is designed to contain the leaking oil and also divert it up a pipe to
the vessel on the surface.

     A larger version of top hat failed to work last Saturday in BP's first
attempt at this kind of solution for Macondo, the scene of an April 20 blowout
that destroyed Transocean's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and created an oil
spill threatening the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana.

     The insertion tube and top hat are the most immediate of several
short-term strategies to be used or considered by BP while it waits for
completion of a relief well as the ultimate solution at Macondo.

     But that relief well may take as long as 90 days to complete, BP has
said.

     During the same press conference, reporters pressed for an update on
estimates of the volume of the Macondo leak, citing independent academic
assessments challenging the official 5,000 b/d estimate as much too low based
on analysis of recently released video of the oil gushing from the wellhead on
the sea floor.

     But US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry and Lars Herbst, regional
director for the US Minerals Management Service, responded by emphasizing the
difficulty in making any definitive measurement and stressing their plan to
treat the Macondo disaster as a potential worst-case scenario, regardless of
the actual flow.

     "Whether it is 1,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000 b/d, the mobilization
is to cover a worst-case scenario," Landry said.

     Herbst and Landry compared the more difficult measurement challenge from
this continuing event with the easier exercise of monitoring the spill of a
specific amount from a tanker.

     But Landry also said the Coast Guard and MMS would eventually determine a
better estimate on the extent of the spill and damage to the Gulf.

     "We will continue to assess the flow as time goes on," Landry said. "We
continue to fight this spill offshore and have been successful to date. We are
in this to the end, until we secure the well."

     Although the MMS and the Coast Guard have approved the use of subsea
dispersants to diminish the leak at the source, Landry said BP has not yet
begun injection of those chemicals.

     "This is not a decision that was made lightly," said Landry without
providing further information about a time frame for those injections.

     Landry also was challenged about contradictory information from Coast
Guard Commander Thad Allen, who was telling reporters in Mobile simultaneously
that the top hat strategy would be applied before the insertion tube by BP.

     "I'll call him and get him caught up," Landry said, when informed of the
discrepancy during the press conference.

  --Gary Taylor, gary_taylor@platts.com