BP oil cap test given green light
Thursday 15th July 2010, 1:22PM BST.
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BP has allayed government fears over making the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster worse.
It started trying to choke off the flow of oil into the Gulf, in the hope of finally stopping the leak.
Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the Obama administration’s point man on the disaster, said the government gave the go-ahead after carefully reviewing the risks of the procedure.
The plan is a test of whether a new temporary well cap can withstand the pressure and ultimately contain the oil.
“What we didn’t want to do is compound that problem by making an irreversible mistake,” he said at the end of a 24-hour roller-coaster of hopes raised, hopes dashed and hopes raised again along the coast.
If the cap works, it will enable BP to stop the oil, either by holding it inside the well machinery or by channelling it to collection ships.
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