ROBERT, La. (AP) - BP said Wednesday it hopes to begin shooting
a mixture known as drilling mud into the blown-out well in the Gulf
of Mexico early next week.
Engineers hope to start the procedure known as a "top-kill" by
Sunday. It could take several weeks to complete, but if it works it
should stop the oil that's been gushing since the offshore drilling
rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the coast of Louisiana April 20
and sank two days later.
"This is all being done at a depth of 5,000 feet and it's never
been done at these depths before," said Doug Suttles of BP PLC,
the oil giant that was leasing the rig when it exploded.
The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that tar balls washing
ashore in the Florida Keys were not from the Gulf spill, but that
did little to soothe fears the oil could spread damage along the
coast from Louisiana to Florida.
The U.S. and Cuba were holding talks on how to respond to the
spill, U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said,
underscoring worries about the oil reaching a strong current that
could carry it to the Florida Keys and the pristine white beaches
of Cuba's northern coast.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee addressed
the spill at a hearing Wednesday where leading Republicans
including John Mica of Florida sought to pin blame on President
Barack Obama's administration. He cited Interior Secretary Ken
Salazaid he is sticking with his estimate that 3.9 million
gallons a day is spewing from two leaks.
His estimate of the amount leaked to date, which he calls
conservative and says has a margin of error of plus or minus 20
percent, is 126 million gallons - or more than 11 times the total
leaked from the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989. The official
estimate is closer to 6 million gallons.
Another researcher, Timothy Crone of Columbia University's
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said the latest video suggested a
leak of at least 840,000 to 4.2 million gallons a day, though poor
video quality made it difficult to come up with an accurate figure.
Government agencies have set up a task force to focus on how
much oil is spilling, but BP America President Lamar McKay said
under questioning at Wednesday's House hearing that officials still
don't know which estimates are correct.
"It's theoretically possible," that the larger estimates are
accurate, he said. "But I don't think anyone who's been working on
this thinks it's that high."
BP has tried several unsuccessful methods to contain the oil,
but earlier this week managed to insert a tube into one of the
leaks and says that as of Wednesday it was sucking 126,000 gallons
a day to the surface.
Another strategy being considered along with the top-kill is the
"junk shot," which involves shooting knotted rope, pieces of
tires and golf balls into the blowout preventer. Crews hope they
will lodge into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it.

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