BP’s next effort to stop the damaged oil well, perhaps today, will be to force-feed heavy drilling mud and cement into the well to plug it up.
The tactic, called a “top kill,’’ has never been tried a mile beneath the sea, and company executives estimate its chances of success at 60 percent to 70 percent.
Also yesterday, in Jackson, Miss., 11 men who died in the April 20 rig explosion were honored at a somber memorial service with tributes from country music stars and drilling company executives.
Meanwhile, up to several thousand barrels of crude oil from the trans-Alaska pipeline spilled yesterday into a massive tank and overflowed into a containment area, shutting down the 800-mile line until the hazard is removed.
The spill happened during a scheduled pipeline shutdown at a pump station near Fort Greely, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks. Workers at the site evacuated. But no one was hurt, and the contamination should be limited to the gravel on top of the containment area’s liner, said Tom DeRuyter, on-scene spill coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
In Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he has been laboring to root out problems at the agency that regulates offshore drilling. And the Justice Department said it will take all appropriate steps to ensure that those responsible for the disastrous blowout and oil spill are held accountable.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers continued feuding over a law that caps oil spill liability at $75 million for economic damages beyond direct cleanup costs. Democrats have tried to pass a bill raising the limit to $10 billion but have been blocked by Republicans.
A new report from the Interior Department’s acting inspector general found that an inspector for the Minerals Management Service, which oversees drilling, admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug at work.
The report cited a variety of violations of federal regulations and ethics rules at the agency’s Louisiana office.
Previous inspector general investigations have focused on inappropriate behavior by the royalty-collection staff in the agency’s Denver office.
