BP Plc engineers on Sunday desperately explored options to control oil gushing from a ruptured Gulf of Mexico well after a setback with a huge containment dome fueled fears of a prolonged and growing environmental disaster. BP was considering its next move after a build-up of crystallized gas in the dome forced engineers to suspend efforts to place the four-story chamber over the rupture, the company’s best short-term solution to containing the spill. The mammoth dome was set aside on the sea floor while BP seeks solutions.
At least 5,000 barrels of oil a day are gushing unchecked into the gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April, killing 11 crew members and rupturing the well. On Dauphin Island, Alabama, a barrier island and beach resort full of weekend swimmers and beachcombers, sunbathers found tar balls and tar beads washing up along a half-mile stretch of the white-sand beach. Experts were testing the tar to determine if it came from the huge Gulf spill. The spill, which could become the worst in US history, threatens economic and ecological disaster on gulf coast tourist beaches, wildlife refuges and fishing grounds. It has forced President Barack Obama to rethink plans to open more waters to drilling.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward told London’s Sunday Telegraph that it could be weeks or months before the spill is brought under control. He said the company could spend US $10 million a day on clean-up efforts. BP engineers were exploring ways to overcome the containment dome’s problem with gas hydrates – essentially slushy methane gas that would block the oil from being siphoned out of the top of the box. – Reuters

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