BP (NYSE:BP) Oil: Static Kill Success, On To Relief Wells

BP (NYSE:BP) engineers appear to be successful in their static kill attempt. Cement was poured in to the top of the well, which is supposed to hold down the mud at the bottom of the well. Now they must wait at least 24 hours for the cement to harden.

The static kill process started on Tuesday with crews pumping thick mud down the well to push the crude back underground. With that success, the next step was to pour in the cement. The final step once the cement hardens is for the engineers to inject more mud and cement into the bottom of the well, creating a permanent plug.

So while we are starting to shift from one aspect of BP's disastrous oil spill to another, there is still much to be done. According to a new report issued by the Interior Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there is still almost 53 million gallons of the toxic oil polluting the Gulf shores.

"There is very little observable oil out there. We can't turn a blind eye, if we don't see oil, I'm not assuming it doesn't exist," said Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft.

BP (NYSE:BP) Kills Whale Skimmer With Dispersants

There has been much controversy surrounding BP's (NYSE:BP) use of the toxic dispersant Corexit, it's proving to kill off more than just marine life. The U.S. coastguard has deemed the Taiwanese skimmer called "A Whale" ineffective.

Due to the massive amounts of dispersants distributed into the Gulf, it broke up the oil resulting in "A Whale" not being able to properly skim the water for oil. There was a lot of optimistic hope that it would greatly assist in the removal of the toxic crude. During its testing it only removed minuscule amounts of oil.

Bob Grantham, TMT offshore spokesman said, "This ship demonstrated that it can bring substantial volumes of capacity to bear in addressing oil spills quickly and with great maneuverability. That said, the particular conditions present in the Macondo spill did not afford the vessel to recover a significant amount of oil. Due to the highly dispersed nature of oil in the Gulf."

BP (NYSE:BP) UPDATE: Oil Being Contained, Secondary Spill Containment

It seems that BP's (NYSE:BP) efforts on their oil spill containment are proving quite successful. After the success of the cap being put into place last week, the questions been how much crude is being captured. As well as when is the secondary spill containment cap attempt is going to be completed. BP didn't have an exact date, but did say that they are going to attempt to put the second cap into place next week.

BP said Tuesday that a ship on the surface is collecting the oil that is being captured. On Monday, 620,000 gallons of oil was contained. On Tuesday, between midnight and noon there was already 330,000 gallons collected. So based on the governments estimate of 600,000 to 1.2 million gallons being lost daily, that would be over half the crude being captured and contained.

Whatever the actual amount of oil being deposited into the ocean is, the bottom line is it still has to end up somewhere. BP is planning on bringing in a storage vessel and floating production, which officials are saying may be the answer. "It's being brought in because it can handle far more oil than this well is producing," said BP spokesman Robert Wine. Although he does not know when its planned arrival is or where it is going to be coming from.

Government Panel Reviewing BP (NYSE:BP) Oil Spill Video

An independent panel of experts has been created by the government to review and study the live oil spill video from BP (NYSE:BP) . This is to determine the amount of oil flowing into the water. Nobody from BP is on this panel.

Scientist are saying BP has been dishonest and that they are trying to distort the accurate results of the oil flow rate. They are doing this to prevent their full liability for environmental damage.

Bob Dudley, BP's managing director told CNN, "I've used the analogy that this is a little bit like popping a soda can rushing out with lots of gas and oil. There's lot of gas in this crude, the rate is unclear." Dudley also insists that the company has been as transparent as possible.

The justice department sent officials to the Gulf to look into the progress of the oil spill. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman would not elaborate if there will be criminal charges filed against BP as well as the other companies that were working on the Deepwater Horizon.