Live Top Kill Webcam Video – Watch BP Attempt Topkill of Gulf Oil Spill On Web Cam Feed Here

Posted by Alexander Higgins - May 26, 2010 at 7:34 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog

BP has finished all diagnostic tests and will start the “Topkill” which will use a combination of mud and cement to fix and cap th BP oil leak in Gulf of Mexico.

You can watch the BP live video webcam camera feed of Gulf oil spill here as BP attempts the top kill method.

BP initially said that it will kill the live camera footage during the attempt to plug the well, but “BP agreed to make the live feed of the top kill attempt available at the request of the President and the National Incident Center,” an administration official told CNN.

BP has downplayed the probability that the Top kill will succeed over the last few days saying that there is a 30-40% chance the the method will not work.

British Petroleum plans to try the “top kill” technique in order to seal the Gulf oil leak which has already done significant damage to the area. The company stated more tests had to be done before they could begin the procedure, and there is still a possibility that “top kill” will be delayed or not done at all.

An animation of the how “Top Kill” method will work can be seen below.

Vessels on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico will pump heavy drilling mud into the blowout preventer under extreme pressures.

The drilling mud is much heavier than water and oil the hope is that the heavier mud will sink to the bottom of well and clog the pipe so that oil can not continue to flow from the drill pipe.

If the Top kill succeeds BP will then begin pumping cement into the Blow out preventer to seal the leak until the two relief wells can be drilled.

A detailed scientific description from the top kill method can be found here..

The number one concern seems to be the amount of pressure inside the blowout preventer and the first leak at at the top of the riser.

If the drilling mud is able to escape through the leak at the top it would act much like a sandblaster which could actually erode the opening and allow even more oil to spew out of the whole.

If that degradation of the leak on the top of the riser occurs BP plans to immediately revert to backup plan which involves cutting the pipe at the riser and capping it with a new riser which would capture most of the oil.