Abstract :
After several months of fruitless subsea efforts, BP appears to have finally plugged the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP faced heartbreaking setbacks in its early attempts to stem the oil gushing from Macondo field, which included a failed ´top kill´ operation. But the company had a multi-strand strategy, and knowledge gained from the failed early efforts helped it formulate more successful plans, which eventually led to the installation of a temporary cap on 15 July. Prior to capping the well, the company also succeeded in capturing over 700,000 barrels of oil on the seabed. The capping operation presented enormous challenges, not least because an enormous fleet of ships was clustered on the surface. Things were even more congested on the seabed with a dozen remote operated vehicles (ROVs) working in close proximity in the pitch-dark, ice-cold conditions on the seafloor, in water a mile deep. The ROVs needed to navigate around a work site cluttered with pipes, cables, tools and debris, close to the open mouth of the well, which was belching vast quantities of oil and gas.
