| GEO World | | BP to try new way to kill Gulf of Mexico oil spill | Updated at: 1914 PST, Wednesday, May 26, 2010
WASHINGTON: BP will try a new experimental strategy to try and stop oil gushing from one of its wells in the Gulf of Mexico as political pressure on the oil giant to do more to limit the impact of the disaster is mounting.
The approach known as 'top kill' involves trying to close the hole by filling it with mud. It has never been tried in such deep water before.
Millions of gallons of oil have pumped into the ocean since an offshore oil rig exploded on April 20.
Previous attempts to stem the flow and limit the oil spill polluting the US coast have had only very limited success.
So far, BP has tried to pump oil in to ships on the surface and has tried to place a dome over the leak.
BP's chief executive Tony Hayward believes today's attempt has a 60-70% chance of success.
In a statement to the stock exchange this morning, BP said: 'This top kill procedure has not been carried out offshore at 5,000 feet water depth before, and its success cannot be assured. It is expected that the entire procedure could take up to two days, and it cannot be predicted how long it will take for the operation to prove successful or otherwise.'
BP is preparing for the fact the operation may fail and is still investigating a number of other options, the statement said. |  |
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