Here is a diagram of the layout of the well leak site from The Oil Drum.

Layout around Deepwater/BP oil well site

The “static kill” procedure reportedly began today, attempting to kill the leaking BP oil well for good.   It’s hard to know whether what we are being told is correct however, because BP has lied to us in the past, and we know now that BP is running the underwater video in loops.  This has been observed by several people.  The rerunning of the video was observed by ‘oil industry expert’ Bob Cavnar, and he reported it tonight on Countdown.    See video here.  Have we ever been sure the video provided by BP was live?

“Based on the results of the injectivity test, BP started pumping drilling mud today at 21:00 (UK) and 15:00 (CDT) as part of the static kill operations. All operations are being carried out with the guidance and approval of the National Incident Commander.”  (See another video here.)

Why they are approaching this with a static kill procedure is something of a mystery. The static kill is coming at the problem via the capping stack at the top of the well again, as opposed to using only the relief wells.  They are also back to using the toxic drilling mud again, which is not normal mud at all.

“…the mud contains ethylene glycol, a highly toxic chemical commonly used in anti-freeze, and caustic soda, a compound more commonly known as lye that is is also toxic. . . . . BP dumped tens of thousands of gallons of the sludge into the well as part of the failed “top-kill” attempt in May, most of which ended up in the ocean.”

Read more about the mud at Mother Jones. Are  they using the same drilling mud in this “static kill” procedure?  There is no reason to believe they are not.  It seems like the EPA can’t tell BP to do anything, including poisoning our land, our water, and our wildlife.  I guess we should feel lucky that BP even felt like stopping the leak at all.

The relief wells, we are told by Thad Allen, will now be used for a “bottom kill”.  Bob Cavnar believes that primarily attacking the well from the top again is a mistake.  Even if the top kill seems to be successful, he feels that we will not be sure the well is stopped on the bottom unless the relief wells are used.

Why aren’t the relief wells being used as the primary well kill method,  after we heard from BP for months that the relief wells are the only way to stop the leak for good?

We may only know the answers to these things several months from now.  One relief well is only about 4 feet from its target.  Meanwhile, there have been some holdups in getting the final “kill” started, but apparently it has begun.  The problem is that at this [...]