BP has dampened talk that it could plug its gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico this month.
The head of the company’s Gulf coast restoration unit, Bob Dudley, said in an interview that stopping the well between July 20 and 27 could be possible “in a perfect world with no interruptions”.
A spokeswoman said Mr Dudley “gave that as the very, very best scenario if everything went superbly according to plan and there are no interruptions – but the expectation is it will be August”.
Those perfect conditions would include good weather – in the middle of the six-month hurricane season which began on June 1.
Two relief wells are currently being drilled. The US government’s national incident commander, Admiral Thad Allen, expects the first one to break into the Deepwater Horizon well pipe about 18,000ft below sea level within seven to 10 days. But it is not yet known how long it will take to stop oil flowing.
The plan is to pump heavy mud then cement into the well to overcome the upward pressure of the oil reservoir below. This could take until mid-August, the timeline BP and government officials have stuck to for weeks.
Yesterday, the Obama administration was heading to court, aiming to reinstate a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling but blocked by a federal judge.