Cautious Optimism Reigns As Well-Plugging Top Kill Enters Second Day

why can't an oil rig drill into the existing hole and bring the oil to the surface safely.

@sammyson9

I may be incorrect but I believe this was addressed in another article at a different site (cnn/gizmodo/wired). Apparently BP WILL be drilling into this hole again even if the top kill method works. But mentioned that it still would take months for a new rig to be setup/installed.

The issue is the pressure isn't it? When they drill they do not get positive pressure until they hit oil, I thought.

BP is the biggest FAIL ever.... you have hundreds upon hundreds of people who whould have fixed this days ago cheaper better some even with thier own expense why? because they A. dont want to waste the oil AND B. dont want to destroy the ecosystem i mean come on how hard can it be?

As i understand it they CAN redrill into this well but you CAN't do it with oil gushing out. There has to be relativley low pressure when the new pipes are installed. Thats what the original rig was doing when the explosion happened. They were sealing off the hole so it could be re-opened later. However, usually you would leave the drilling mud in the well so that it holds the pressure down. then the pumping rig would come in, pump out the mud, and begin to pump oil. BP wanted to skip that step and they thought the well was stable enough so they made the transocean rig pump the drilling mud out and replace it with seawater. Thats when the methane bubble came up and through the blowout preventor causing the explosion which caused the whole disaster. Also, before they could start pumping again they will need a new blowout preventor since this one is now busted. Long story short, had BP not tried to cut corners and left the mud there in the first place we wouldn't have to be going back now to pump it back in.

Why cant the US navy step in and pack a few well placed high explosive bombs and blow the crap out of this mess and collapse the well in on its self?????

@Fibbermgee

That is the absolute WORST possible idea! The well would not end up collapsing in on itself and plug the hole at all. The oil would continue to leak out through the millions of cracks and debris the explosion made. Your idea would only make the situation 1000x worse than it is already.

Now that that stupid Idea finally failed. We can finally get to work on a plan that will work. I personally dont know how any of the previous efforts could have been considered seriously by any engineer. Cutting the broken pipe and capping it is actually a viable solution, and I kind of think it could have been stopped sooner, but it would have been at the peril of the well. BP seems to have been doing these other things simply to keep the media off their backs while they get ready to cap the well in a way that will allow them to retrieve the oil and pump up their profits.