Share this on: Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn Viadeo Oil spill response to be assessed on Capitol Hill

Washington (News Today) - Almost a month after an oil well ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico, BP says its latest attempt at capping the gushing crude is working while the Obama administration vows it won't rest until the company cleans up the spill and addresses its impact.

On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and BP America Chairman Lamar McKay will appear before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs to assess the response to what lawmakers are calling a "catastrophe."

"We will not rest until BP permanently seals the wellhead, the spill is cleaned up, and the communities and natural resources of the Gulf Coast are restored and made whole," Napolitano and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement Sunday.

They were referring to a BP maneuver to siphon the oil from the well into a tanker using a tube.

The 4-inch pipe was pumping oil to a ship on the surface, 5,000 feet above the sea floor, BP spokesman Mark Proegler said Sunday.

If successful, the technique will capture most of the oil that has been pouring out.

BP executives told reporters in a conference call Sunday that the process was working "extremely well" so far, but it was not known how much oil was being captured.

"In terms of containing the flow, this was a positive step forward," said Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP.

Wells said that crews were operating the tool cautiously as they make adjustments to achieve an optimal flow rate up to the drill ship.

Napolitano and Salazar expressed caution about the effectiveness of the insertion tube.

"This technique is not a solution to the problem, and it is not yet clear how successful it may be," the statement said. "We are closely monitoring BP's test with the hope that it will contain some of the oil, but at the same time, federal scientists are continuing to provide oversight and expertise to BP as they move forward with other strategies to contain the spill and stop the flow of oil."

The effort was dealt a setback Friday night, when the frame holding the insertion tube shifted and prevented the surface vessel from connecting to it, said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production.

The system was able to capture some of the leaking oil and pipe it to a drill ship on the surface Saturday night and early Sunday, where the crude was stored in tanks and natural gas captured in the process was burned off, according to a statement from the joint BP-Coast Guard command center leading the response to the oil spill.

The test was halted when the tube came out, but it was soon re-inserted and pumping resumed, the company said.

Wells said the next step in stopping the flow will be a "top kill" procedure in which a large amount of kill mud -- a heavy fluid used in drilling operations -- is inserted into the well bore to reduce pressure and reduce flow.

Once the pressure is reduced, BP hopes to be able to entomb the well in cement, effectively cutting off the gusher.

Wells said the mud will be pumped through the bottom of the well's blowout preventer at a maximum rate of 40 barrels (1,680 gallons) a minute.

"So with all of the pumping horsepower we have on the surface, we'll be able to pump far faster than the well can flow, and it's about us outracing the well," he said.

Preparations for the top kill procedure will take place over the next seven to 10 days, Wells said.

The underwater gusher began after an April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The explosion and subsequent fire caused the Deepwater Horizon to sink two days later, prompting oil to begin spilling from the well.

The amount of oil pouring into the Gulf was estimated at about 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) per day in late April. BP said the estimate remains the same as of Sunday.

The slick has spread across much of the northern Gulf of Mexico, with periodic bits of oil washing up onto the shores of Louisiana's barrier islands.

Suttles said the application of underwater dispersants -- a tactic approved for use Friday -- appears to be working.

"The oil in the immediate vicinity of the well and the ships and rigs working in the area is diminished from previous observations," he said after flying over the area Saturday.

The Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the decision to use subsea dispersants is an "important step" aimed at reducing potential damage from the spill, because dispersants can be more effective underwater than on the ocean's surface.

But more recent estimates suggest the actual volume could be far higher than the estimated 5,000 barrels per day. And Ray Highsmith, executive director of the University of Mississippi's National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, told CNN that plumes of oil appear to have settled beneath the surface.

"We're clearly detecting something," Highsmith said. Either oil has settled on the bottom or it has risen to the surface and sank again, as happened in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

"This is a very different spill than we've ever had before, and we need to learn as much about it as we can," he said.

Source : CNN

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