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BP allayed last-minute government fears of
making the disaster worse and began testing the new,
tighter-fitting cap Wednesday that could finally choke off the oil
leak in the Gulf of Mexico.


      Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's
point man on the disaster, said the government gave the go-ahead
after carefully reviewing the risks.


      "What we didn't want to do is compound that problem by making
an irreversible mistake," he said at the end of a 24-hour
roller-coaster of hopes raised, hopes dashed and hopes raised again
along the Gulf Coast.


      The cap -- a 75-ton metal stack of pipes and valves -- was lowered
onto the well on Monday in hopes of either bottling up the oil
inside the well machinery, or capturing it and funneling it to the
surface. But before BP could test the equipment, the government
intervened because of second thoughts about whether the buildup of
pressure from the gushing oil could rupture the walls of the well
and make the leak worse.


      "We sat long and hard about delaying the tests," Allen said.
He said that the pause was necessary in the interest of the public,
the environment and safety, and that officials were convinced the
test could go forward.


      The test began with BP shutting off pipes that were funneling
some of the oil to ships on the surface so the full force of the
gusher went up into the cap. Then deep-sea robots began slowly
closing, one at a time, three openings in the cap that let oil pass
through. Ultimately, the flow of crude will be blocked entirely.
All along, engineers will be watching pressure readings to learn
whether the well is intact.


      Allen said BP will monitor the results every six hours and end
the test after 48 hours to evaluate the findings.


      The one-day delay came just when it looked as if the Gulf oil
crisis was nearing an end. The holdup was met with disappointment
along the Gulf Coast.


      "This thing's been going on for so long now, it's time to take
a gamble," said Mitch Jurisich, a third-generation oyster farmer
from Empire, La. "If it's going to blow the bottom of the ocean
out, it's just going to blow the bottom out."


      White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the government acted
"out of an abundance of caution to do no harm," and added that he
did not consider the delay to be "some giant setback."


      With the testing on hold, oil continued to spew nearly unimpeded
into the water. Two vessels on the surface collected about 700,000
gallons on Tuesday, BP said. The government estimates 1.5 million
to 2.5 million gallons are leaking every day.


      BP also said it was halting drilling for the duration of the
test on one of two relief wells that are intended to plug the
gusher permanently from deep underground. The company said it was
stopping the work because it was not clear what effect the testing
of the cap could have on it. Work on the other relief well had
already been stopped according to plan.


      Before BP got the go-ahead for the cap test, BP Chief Operating
Officer Doug Suttles urged Gulf residents to be patient.


      "We're going to get this thing stopped as fast as we can," he
said. "If it is not in the next couple of days with the test,
we'll do it with the relief wells."


      Tony Wood, director of the National Spill Control School at
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, said the government's caution is a
prudent course, because so much of the work being contemplated is
uncharted territory.


      Wood said trapping the erupting oil in the cap could increase
pressure inside the casing, or the piping inside the well, and
could fracture it until it is leaking like a sieve. That could make
it impossible to plug up the well.


      The caution follows a string of failed attempts by BP to contain
the leak, including the use of a giant concrete-and-steel box that
quickly became encased in ice-like crystals; a colossal siphon tube
that trapped very little oil, and an effort to jam the well by
pumping in mud and shredded rubber.


      As of Wednesday, the 85th day of the disaster, between 92
million and 182 million gallons of oil had spewed into the Gulf
since the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by BP exploded April 20,
killing 11 workers.      

Gallery

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After days of progress, BP freezes work in Gulf

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Scientists say Gulf spill altering food web

Photo timeline of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill crisis

Disasters

BP allayed last-minute government fears of
making the disaster worse and began testing the new,
tighter-fitting cap Wednesday that could finally choke off the oil
leak in the Gulf of Mexico.


BP begins testing new cap over Gulf oil leak

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