BP Plc expects its new, tighter well cap to be in place by late Monday, and if all goes well, it could capture all of the crude oil from the ruptured well, a top BP manager was quoted by dpa as saying. "We made good progress overnight," Doug Suttles, who oversees oil exploration for BP, told reporters. "We are on track." The 100-ton, 30-metre-high cylinder will replace the leaking one that has been removed, and BP officials hope it will be able to funnel all of the estimated 30,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil now leaking from the well off the coast of Louisiana to tanker ships on the surface. But such optimistic forecasts by BP in the past have only led to disappointment, and Thad Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral overseeing the clean up and well work for the federal government, is sceptical until he gets final confirmation that the new cap is in place. A commission appointed by US President Barack Obama started its work Monday to investigate the cause of the massive rig explosion on April 20 that tore open one of the deepest offshore wells ever drilled. Since then, oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, creating an environmental disaster on the coasts of four states and among the Gulf's vast marine life. Obama's attempt to place a six-month moratorium on such deep water drilling until better controls are in place was rebuffed by a lower court and is now at the appeals level. Nonetheless, there were reports Monday that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was expected to issue a new offshore drilling moratorium and announce a series of hearings on the future of offshore drilling policy. Suttles emphasized to reporters that the lowering and installation of the new cap 1,500 metres below the ocean surface was a "complex operation." After installation, the cap will be tested for about 48 hours to check the pressure coming from the well pipe that reaches about 6,000 metres below the surface. If the pressure climbs, BP engineers were optimistic they could capture all of the outflow. But flat or low pressure would be a bad sign. "If the pressure were lower, it could mean the oil is escaping somewhere else," Suttles said. Simultaneous efforts to hook up another processing ship, the Helix Producer, to a line coming out of the side of the wellhead had hit some problems, Suttles said. But they had been resolved on Sunday and the Helix was to be ready to begin its capture work on Monday. In London, BP shares rose sharply Monday amid the prospect of forthcoming asset sales and speculation about a possible hostile takeover bid from US rival ExxonMobil. BP has spent more than 3 billion dollars on the efforts to clean up the spill and repair and stop the ruptured well. The well won't be permanently plugged until drilling of a parallel relief well is finished and connected at the well's bottom. BP plans to force cement and heavy mud down the new well pipe to shut down the oil field permanently.
