US Government: BP May Skip 'Bottom Kill' If Tests Show Gulf Well Sealed

BP PLC (BP) and government officials may choose to skip finishing work on the Gulf of Mexico relief-well if pressure tests show an earlier operation succeeded in permanently sealing the ruptured well, the top federal official overseeing oil-spill recovery said Thursday.

Ret. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said during a teleconference that BP engineers and federal scientists believe there's a slight possibility that the well was permanently plugged when the company pumped cement down into the well through the well head last week. The company started running pressure tests Thursday and a decision is expected within 24 hours on whether to proceed with relief-well drilling to allow a "bottom kill" operation, whereby drilling mud and cement will be pumped into the ruptured Macondo well.

"I wouldn't rule out anything at this point," Allen said. "We think it's a low probability that we would not finish the relief well and cement, but we need to run the (pressure) tests and analyse the data."

The test will show whether the earlier cementing operations effectively accomplished the task of the "bottom kill," Allen said. "The question is if that already happened."

Killing the leak with a relief well has long been touted as a final, permanent fix for the leak sprung in late April when the Deepwater Horizon rig burned and sank. No oil has escaped from the broken well since a cap was placed on it in mid-July.

BP expected to intersect the ruptured well sometime early next week with a nearly 18,000-foot-deep relief well.

-By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; isabel.ordonez@dowjones.com

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