Washington:
The US government declared BP's Macondo oil well dead on Sunday, nearly five months after the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began.
"We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead," Thad W Allen, the former Coast Guard admiral who leads the federal spill response, said in a statement. The well, he said, "poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico."
Crews aboard the Development Driller III drill rig conducted a successful pressure test early Sunday on cement that had been pumped into the bottom of the once-gushing well through a relief well. The tests confirmed that the cement formed an effective, and final, seal to prevent oil and gas from coming up from a formation about 13,000 below the seabed.
The announcement represents the culmination of engineering efforts that began shortly after a subsea blowout at the well on April 20 caused the Deepwater Horizon drill rig to burn and sink. Eleven workers were killed in the accident, and the well began spewing oil and gas into the gulf. An estimated 4.9 million barrels, or about 205 million gallons, of oil entered the water until the well was shut by a mechanical device in mid-July.
No oil had leaked since then, and a cement barrier had been pumped into part of the well in August, but the government and BP had always said they would not consider the well "killed" until the relief well completed its work.
The government said that oversight for the well would now pass from the National Incident Command, which is headed by Admiral Allen, to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, an agency of the Department of the Interior. The Macondo well and the two relief wells -- the second had been drilled as a backup in case the first encountered problems -- will now be abandoned following standard industry practices.
Admiral Allen said that the other work of the incident command would continue. "Although the well is now dead, we remain committed to continue aggressive efforts to clean up any additional oil we may see going forward," he said.
"We can finally announce that the Macondo 252 well is effectively dead," Thad W Allen, the former Coast Guard admiral who leads the federal spill response, said in a statement. The well, he said, "poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico."
Crews aboard the Development Driller III drill rig conducted a successful pressure test early Sunday on cement that had been pumped into the bottom of the once-gushing well through a relief well. The tests confirmed that the cement formed an effective, and final, seal to prevent oil and gas from coming up from a formation about 13,000 below the seabed.
The announcement represents the culmination of engineering efforts that began shortly after a subsea blowout at the well on April 20 caused the Deepwater Horizon drill rig to burn and sink. Eleven workers were killed in the accident, and the well began spewing oil and gas into the gulf. An estimated 4.9 million barrels, or about 205 million gallons, of oil entered the water until the well was shut by a mechanical device in mid-July.
No oil had leaked since then, and a cement barrier had been pumped into part of the well in August, but the government and BP had always said they would not consider the well "killed" until the relief well completed its work.
The government said that oversight for the well would now pass from the National Incident Command, which is headed by Admiral Allen, to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, an agency of the Department of the Interior. The Macondo well and the two relief wells -- the second had been drilled as a backup in case the first encountered problems -- will now be abandoned following standard industry practices.
Admiral Allen said that the other work of the incident command would continue. "Although the well is now dead, we remain committed to continue aggressive efforts to clean up any additional oil we may see going forward," he said.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
