BP (NYSE:BP): Re-opening Spill Containment Cap and Hiding Data

BP (NYSE:BP) is hiding the data from their testing and reopening the spill containment cap. The cap has to be re-opened for up to 3 days said Doug Suttles. Saying that pressure must be taken off the well before BP can continue their containment efforts.

Doug Suttles took the place of Kent Wells at the McBriefing, after giving very little information he then refused to answer any questions. The only information that was given was about the pressure of the well, even that didn't make a whole lot of since. He said since the well was closed 63 hours prior, the pressure was up to 6,778 and was building as they thought it would.

What's odd about this is on Tuesday Thad Allen stated, "We will at some point try to get to 8,000 or 9,000 and sustain that for some period of time, and these will be done basically as I said. If we have a very low pressure reading, we will try and need at least six hours of those readings to try to ensure that that is the reading. If it's a little higher, we want to go for 24 hrs. If it's up at 8,000 or 9,000, we would like to go 48 hrs. just to make sure it can sustain those pressures for that amount of time."

Suttles continued to dodge questioning Sunday afternoon as to what BP plans to do next. He did say, "Nobody wants to see anymore oil going into the Gulf," a minimum of 5 times. He continued saying, the facilities to take all the oil flow wouldn't be completed until the end of July. In order to relieve the well of pressure, he said they would have to remove the containment cap and let oil flow out for 3 days.

BP (NYSE:BP) Spill Containment Cap Testing

The spill containment cap was successfully put into place by BP (NYSE:BP), but now the question remains, when will testing begin to see if it will prevent oil from being deposited into the ocean ? BP officials originally said Monday, here we are on Thursday with no definite answer.

BP's vice president, Kent Wells said a leak was found on Wednesday evening on the side of the capping device called the "choke line," the pipe has been repaired but caused the delay in testing the cap. With the choke line repaired BP can resume the testing, but they have to back track a few steps.

Once the test begins engineers will close all three opening in the cap, if successful no oil should come out. BP will be carefully monitoring the pressure beneath the cap. What they'll be looking for is high pressure, that means there's only a single leak. While low pressure means there could be leaks further down the well. The oil will stay trapped for at least 48 hours before BP determines if it's working properly.