BP 'may stem oil with golf balls and tyres'
BP officials desperate to stem a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are considering stuffing the well with golf balls and tyres, it was revealed.
BBC
05/10/2010
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the so-called "junk shot" of debris was one option after previous attempts to stem the flow failed.
A growing slick from the BP-leased rig is threatening an environmental disaster along US coasts.
Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day are flowing into the sea.
Mr Suttles said it may be possible to stem the flow by blocking the well's failed blowout preventer.
"We have some pipe work on the blowout preventer, and if we can open certain valves on that we could inject basically just rubber and other type of material into [it] to plug it up, not much different to the way you might plug up a toilet," he said.
Admiral Thad Allen of the US Coast Guard said it could plug the main leak.
"They're going to take a bunch of debris, shredded up tyres, golf balls and things like that, and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak," he told CBS television.
ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL SLICK
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the so-called "junk shot" of debris was one option after previous attempts to stem the flow failed.
A growing slick from the BP-leased rig is threatening an environmental disaster along US coasts.
Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day are flowing into the sea.
Mr Suttles said it may be possible to stem the flow by blocking the well's failed blowout preventer.
"We have some pipe work on the blowout preventer, and if we can open certain valves on that we could inject basically just rubber and other type of material into [it] to plug it up, not much different to the way you might plug up a toilet," he said.
Admiral Thad Allen of the US Coast Guard said it could plug the main leak.
"They're going to take a bunch of debris, shredded up tyres, golf balls and things like that, and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak," he told CBS television.
However, experts have warned that any further damage to the blowout preventer - a huge valve system meant to turn the oil off - could see it shooting out at 12 times the current rate.
In other developments, a BP official told the Associated Press news agency on Monday that the company had received US government approval to continuously pump dispersant chemicals underwater.
BP spokesman Mark Proegler said engineers began pumping dispersant on the site on Monday morning.
Thousands of gallons of dispersant have been dropped over oil on the surface, but have not been tried at such depths before.
Scientists and fishermen have expressed concern that the chemicals could kill marine life.
BP revealed on Monday that the oil spill had cost the company $350m (£233m) so far.
It did not speculate on the final bill, which many analysts expect to run into tens of billions of dollars.
Efforts thwarted
The Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank following an explosion last month.
