Bad Weather In Gulf Could Threaten Bp Oil Spill Site

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10711746

Experts are considering whether a possible tropical storm could disrupt work at the site of the BP oil spill.

If bad weather over the Caribbean strengthens and then moves to the site in the Gulf of Mexico, ships will have to be withdrawn.

It could mean no work on the relief well for up to two weeks.

A final piece of casing needs to be cemented in place at the bottom of the relief well before it can then drill into the damaged well.

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Once the casing is in place, engineers could begin the last drilling within five to seven days and then "kill" the well with mud and cement.

There is a 60% chance that a weather pattern currently over the island of Hispaniola will turn into a cyclone within the next 48 hours, the National Hurricane Center says. It is currently moving west-northwest.

A reconnaissance flight is to be carried out on Thursday.

Senior BP executive Kent Wells said the relief well currently had a plug in it below the surface in anticipation of bad weather.

If the weather holds, a "static" kill - pumping mud into the top of the well through the new cap - could be done as an intermediate measure. BP and government experts are deciding whether this will take place.

BP would need a weather window of two to four days to place the final bit of casing, cement it and then carry out the static kill operation, Mr Wells said.

The cap applied last Thursday stopped oil leaking from the well for the first time since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20 April.

Eleven workers on the BP-leased rig were killed and the oil caused one of America's worst environmental disasters.

The well is currently shut for an integrity test, to see if there are any ruptures beneath the surface.

Adm Allen said BP and the government were still considering whether the well would be left shut or opened in the event that bad weather forced all the ships away from the site.

Vast amounts of oil have entered the Gulf and BP says the cost of dealing with the spill has now reached nearly $4bn (£2.6bn).

BP has moved to sell assets in Texas, Canada and Egypt in order to meet part of the clean-up bill.