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BP finally stops oil flowing into Gulf of Mexico
 BP engineers have stopped oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April as they shut all valves on a new cap placed on top of a fractured wellhead.
"It is good to see no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," said senior vice-president Kent Wells, but he cautioned: "We are just starting the test."
He said the oil flow stopped as the last of three valves on a huge capping stack was shut at around 2.25pm on Thursday (0525 AEST Friday), but engineers were keeping a close eye on the operation to see whether any oil began leaking again.
It was the biggest step forward in halting the worst oil spill in US history which has been flowing into the sea since an explosion sank a BP-leased rig on April 22, two days after a major explosion on the deepwater drilling platform.
"I'm very excited to see no oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.
BP executive Doug Suttles says the new containment cap design came from weeks of trial and error. "We've been adding and trying new things constantly," Mr. Suttles said.
The design was originally intended to increase BP's ability to siphon oil from the well to containment ships on the surface. But in the past two weeks, it became clear to the company that the design, if it passed certain well integrity tests, could also be used to stop the flow altogether.
The U.S Congressional Committee has agreed that it would ban BP from drilling by the U.S. offshore for at least 7 years. The ban does not specify BP, but rather the new law stated that it would be banning any company that has seen 10 or more death in the past 7 years. As of BP’s case, the oil rig explosion in April, killed 11 workers of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Source:Reuters
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