BP well could be sealed in two weeks as costs hit $8 bln

BP well could be sealed in two weeks as costs hit $8 bln

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- BP said Friday that costs linked to its massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have now hit $8 billion as the oil giant also indicated the well could be permanently sealed in around two weeks.

While no new oil has escaped into the Gulf since July 15, BP needs to complete a relief well in order to permanently kill the leak by flooding the ruptured well with cement closer to the oil reservoir.

The company said in a statement Friday that, depending on weather conditions, it hopes the relief drilling will be completed by mid-September.

Bad weather had halted the plans at the start of this week, but BP said it's now resumed operations to remove the failed blow-out preventer from the top of the well and replace it with a new one -- a crucial step before it can resume the relief drilling and puncture the steel casing at the bottom of the old well. See archived story on the weather-related halt to drilling.

The old blow-out preventer will also be examined as part of the investigation into what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded in April, killing 11 workers.


White House reacts to new Gulf rig explosionSpokesman Robert Gibbs addresses the Gulf rig explosion during a briefing.
BP's latest price-tag for the disaster, which includes the cost of cleaning up the oil, drilling the relief well and paying claims and federal costs, stands at $8 billion.

The bill has increased by nearly a third from the $6.1 billion figure it gave on Aug. 9, and costs will continue to rise.

The group agreed in June to set up a $20 billion escrow account to pay for some of the obligations that will arise from the spill.

It said Friday that around 28,400 personnel and more than 4,050 vessels are still involved in the response and clean-up.

Shares in BP rose 0.2% on Friday, underperforming slightly against rivals Royal Dutch Shell, which rose 0.5%, and Total, which was up 1.1%.

The statement from BP came just a day after another fire on a Gulf of Mexico rig.

In the latest incident, 13 workers were successfully evacuated from the Mariner Energy /quotes/comstock/13*!me/quotes/nls/me (ME 22.75, -0.60, -2.57%) platform. The Coast Guard later said it could find no signs of an oil sheen that had been reported in the vicinity of the Mariner rig. See full story on the Mariner Energy fire.

source: marketwatch.com