It’s an important week for BP’s Gulf oil cleanup efforts

It’s going to be an important week for BP as their ongoing Gulf oil cleanup efforts will may take a new path soon as pressure from US officials mounts to reopen the well in case oil is still leaking.

However Admiral Paul Zukunft, US Coastguard had earlier commented “There is no new oil coming up at the source.”

At the moment BP has been granted permission to keep the cap on its damaged Gulf oil well shut for another day.

There is mounting concern that the cap was leaking, meaning that the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix.

BP’s Oil Relief Well Plan

To plug the well, BP is drilling two relief wells, one of them as a backup.

The company said work on the first one was far enough along that officials expect to reach the broken well’s pipes deep underground by late this month.

Pressure from Officials Mount to Reopen Well

“If the well remains fully shut in until the oil relief well is completed, we may never have a fully accurate determination of the flow rate from this well.” Markey, D-Massachusetts, said in a letter to Allen released Sunday.

For US residents directly affected by the Gulf oil spill, many would rather see the leak fully contained. This is exactly what BP has been attempting to do with some success over the last 3 days, opposed to reopening the oil well, which would spill more crude out into the Gulf in the short term, and could potentially bring new problems to surface.

If in doubt, keep it shut…

• BP prepares a third attempt to pressure test leaking oil well
• BP Gulf oil site maybe leaking again engineers believe
• Oil slick chaos as 210,000 gallons leaking daily into Gulf
• US government plans to take BP to the cleaners over spill
• US to BP – You have 24 hrs to share oil relief well plans
• BP oil relief well maybe last chance of stopping Gulf spill
• Chances are that BP oil spill may hit Miami coast by August
• UK PM and US President split over BP oil spill costs
• Gulf oil spill maybe bigger than BP wants you to know
• US bans oil companies deepwater drilling for 6 months
• BP lowers a cap onto leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well
• BP pasted by more setbacks over US Gulf crude oil spill
• Obama sends US nuclear physicists to tackle Gulf oil leak
• BP in deeper trouble, has hands full with Gulf oil slick chaos
• Gulf oil rig disaster spilling 300,000 gallons of oil per day
• Critical pressure rise still a worry at BP Gulf oil spill
• BP claims that oil cap pressure test success, leak stopped
• Oil prices hold firm near $76 mark as BP stops Gulf oil leak
• BP claims Gulf oil spill is contained, but will it hold out?
• Brent oil trading near $76 as BP receives seven year US ban

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It’s an important week for BP’s Gulf oil cleanup efforts