BP test delays continue as second oil relief well suspended

BP integrity tests delays continue as the company hopes that the tests will be carried out sometime today, as the second backup oil relief well is temporarily suspended to ensure that there is no interference with the first oil relief well.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is now into the 86th day and BP’s medium to long term future could depend on the success or failure of capping and killing the oil spill permanently.

Additional Analysis of Well Testing

“The National Incident Commander announced that additional analysis of the well testing procedure should be performed before starting the well integrity test. This analysis will be conducted tonight and into tomorrow. Consequently, the well integrity test did not start today.” was announced yesterday within a press release on BP’s website.

“It’s an incredibly big concern. They need to get a scan of where things are, that way when they do pressure testing, they know to look out for ruptures or changes.” said Don Van Nieuwenhuise, director of Professional Geoscience Programs at the University of Houston.

Assuming BP gets the green light to do the cap testing after the extra analysis is finished then engineers need to shut off lines already funneling some oil to ships to see how the cap handles the pressure of the crude oil coming up from the ground.

Second BP Oil Relief Well Temporarily Suspended

In BP’s press release yesterday the company added “Operations continue on the first relief well. Operations on the second relief well have been temporarily suspended at 15,963 feet to ensure that there is no interference with the first relief well. The relief wells remain the sole means to permanently seal and isolate the well.”

Assuming that this all goes to plan, then it could be the start of the end of the BP oil spill disaster, but at the moment, we will have to sit it out until further details are released.

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