American Morning
BP nears decision on 'top kill' procedure
(CNN) – BP's top official said the oil company will make a decision later Wednesday on whether to proceed with a "top kill" procedure designed to contain oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward told CNN's "American Morning" that a determination will be made after testing is complete.
"So far, it's looking OK," he said. "But we haven't got all the data we need."
Top kill has worked successfully on above-ground oil wells in the Middle East but has never been tested 5,000 feet underwater. Hayward has given the "top kill" maneuver a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of success.
From angry residents of the Gulf Coast to frustrated lawmakers in Washington, many pinned hopes that with the top kill, BP finally would be able to stop the oil leak. Otherwise, they said, it was time for the government to take charge. Read more
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Referring to your program this morning (May 27/2010) and the extent of the oil spill depicted, so far no one has mentioned what is the density or specific gravity of the crude oil being spilled. Photographic evidence has pointed to a vast amount of oil in the sub-surface of the sea. This could be as a result of the addition of the corexit dispersant or the crude oil could be an asphaltic type crude. There is an extreme possibility that this crude will end up in the Gulf Stream along the U.S. east coast, destroying the Sargasso Sea which is sandwiched in by the North Atlantic current and eventually end in the British Isles, homeland of Brutish Petroleum. Methodology as to how this eak can be repaired has been blogged to Campbell Brown. Chad Myres can attest to the route of the Gulf Stream.
Richard Bennett
Mississauga, Ontario
Canada
This BP mess must be met with immediate hit in their pockets, they are so slow and seem not to care about anything! The government should impose fine of 2 million dollars a day dating back from the day of explosions, then they will do everything they can to stop and clean the mess. We the American should start boycott of BP products until this mess is cleaned up.
Bziegnew Mugogo
I see a man whose future home should be a jail cell.
Have BP bothered to ask for assistance from the other big oil companies to come up with a quicker solution to stop this leak. As we can see this is a real problem for all oil companies, and surely pooling resources would make the entire industry safer in terms of preventing further man made disasters like this, and being able to react much sooner when they do occur.
Pete
Vancouver Canada
Hello fellow Canadian. John, while watching the shuttle landing this morning I couldn't help but wonder why with the building of shuttles and landing at space stations, why does the U.S. not have the technology to fix the old spill when it is a mile down....on earth ...and yet they can do so much in space? This astounds me?
A question after the comment. The BP CEO did not answer any of John's many good, direct questions. I am sure that John knew this but the CEO kept saying what he wanted to say without providing answers. How and why do interviewees consistently get away with such evasion, even with experienced, capable interviewers who seem to want answers?
Hey John, if you speak to BPs Chief Excuse Officer again, please ask him the following: Why in BPs"Gulf of Mexico spill response plan" written up last year is there not one line that mentions the "safety valve" but there are 580 pages on "Media Crisis Management"? Also, in your interview with him this morning he was using his pitty face and talking low and slowly, almost crying. This is in the hopes you won't be too hard on him. It's all part of their "media response tactic" so please don't fall for it. And if you have the "honour" of speaking to him again, crush him!!!