BP oil spill effort and Gulf production on hold amid storm

Officials have ordered technicians trying to plug BP’s oil spill site to stand down and Shell Oil also began evacuating employees out in the Gulf amid the new tropical storm closing in on the Gulf’s oil production sites.

Though the rough weather was hundreds of miles from the BP spill site, it will enter the Gulf in a few more days. The cluster of thunderstorms passed over Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, and forecasters said the system would probably move into the Gulf over the weekend.

The National Hurricane Center said today the storm system over the Bahamas had a 40 per cent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone.

Worse yet, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the bad weather could require reopening the cap that has contained the oil for nearly a week.

Tropical Storm Bonnie – Map of Projected Storm Path

The latest models have a tropical wave near the Bahamas passing just south of the Florida Peninsula on its way into the Gulf of Mexico.

Depending on how this new storm system develops, officials may have to issue evacuation orders for all support ships and engineers trying to finish drilling the two relief well’s deep under the seabed.

Meanwhile, scientists have been monitoring underwater video and pressure data for days at the oil spill site, trying to determine if the capped well is holding tight or in danger of rupturing and causing an even bigger disaster.

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