CBC News Saturday, May 29, 2010 | 6:52 PM ET
BP has scuttled the "top kill" procedure of shooting heavy drilling mud into its blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico after it failed to plug the leak. BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters on Saturday that over the last three days, the company has pumped in more than 30,000 barrels of mud and other materials down the well but has not been able to stop the flow. "These repeated pumping[s], we don’t believe will likely achieve success so at this point it’s time to move to the next option," Suttles said.He said the decision was made following a significant review by a "brain trust of engineers and scientists" from BP, the industry, and the U.S. Department of Energy and Interior.
He said the company is preparing a new plan that would involve using robot submarines to cut off the source of the leak, a damaged riser, and cap it with a containment valve that's already resting on the sea floor. The new attempt would take four days to complete, he said. "We're confident the job will work but obviously we can't guarantee success at this time," Suttles said of the new plan.
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