Relief well rig back at BP oil spill site in Gulf
A RIG that had been drilling a relief well to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak was back on site yesterday after storm fears forced it to leave the area on Friday.
The Transocean rig “is on location, and beginning the process of reconnecting,” a BP spokesperson said.
Other vessels that had left the site late Friday in advance of what was billed as Tropical Storm Bonnie also returned yesterday.
The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression over the weekend and never regained strength when it reached the Gulf.
While most rigs and ships left the spill site out of caution, ships running underwater robots that provide live feeds of the wellhead stayed and continued to operate, according to BP.
Admiral Thad Allen, head of the US spill response, said a “static kill” operation, which includes pumping heavy mud and cement into the well, could start in three to five days.
Meanwhile, it emerged over the weekend that alarms on Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig were switched off at the time of the April explosion. The move was to prevent workers from being woken up by false alarms, according to a rig manager.