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The relief well BP has been drilling since May 2, is now said to be 100 feet from the Macondo well, which poured up 300 million gallons of gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days. However, earlier reports from BP had placed the relief well as close as 5 feet from its target.
Since the damaged BP well has not moved, changes in the distance between the relief well and the target could indicate that the relief well was either further off target than BP had admitted, or for some undisclosed reason, the interception point changed.
During the three month long course of the relief well drilling the operation has been stopped on several occasions. Weather, and the static kill operation have been the most recent. But BP also suffered a set back when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently issues a 29 page report that said the blowout preventer on the relief well had failed to pass safety tests.
Floirda Senator Bill Nelson told NBC News in June that the success of the relief well was not guranteed, due to damage to the casing. Further, unconfirmed reports claimed that the relief well was in danger of suffering the same fate as the original well, if it drilled though an explosive gas pocket.
The well was cemented via the static kill procedure, also known as bullheading, two days ago, but will not be concidered permantly sealed until the relief well completes the 'bottom kill."
Considering BP’s lack of transparency throughout the worst oil spill disaster in US history, the seemingly elusive interception point for the relief well’s final kill of the Deepwater Horizon’s well, may lie in withheld information on the continued presence of risks that would further damage the Gulf of Mexico, and BP’s tarnished public reputation.
The two videos below show that the location of the relief well in relation to the blown out Deepwater Horizon well has been unclear. Ealier reports place it closer then more recent ones.
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