BP's efforts to finish relief oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico have been set back.
The approaching tropical storm Bonnie has forced BP to temporarily suspend drilling on its relief well in the Gulf of Mexico. Work to permanently plug the oil giant's leaking Macondo oil well, that has spewed more than 4m barrels of oil into the gulf, could be held up for up two weeks.
In a major setback for BP, ships working on the damaged Macondo oil well are leaving the site due to the storm, which formed over the Bahamas and could reach the spill area by the weekend. They have been ordered to evacuate the area by the US government.
The fleet of 65 ships involved in the disaster response is now leaving, including vessels being used in the monitoring of the well, although some ships may remain on site.
Thad Allen, the official appointed by Barack Obama to lead the federal response to the disaster, said: "Some of the boats may be able to remain on site but we will err on the side of safety.
"While these actions may delay the effort to kill the well for several days, the safety of individuals at the well site is our highest concern."
He warned: "If we have to evacuate the area ... we could be looking at 10 to 14 day gaps in our lines of operation."
BP confirmed this morning that "relief well activities at the well site will be temporarily suspended because of potentially adverse weather associated with tropical storm Bonnie, which is projected to track into the Gulf of Mexico.
"BP will continue to monitor the well as long as weather permits. Duration of the suspension of relief well activities will be dependent on the weather."
Undersea robots that monitor the sealed well will be the last to leave the site and first to return, because they are connected to ships able to handle waves as high as 15 feet, Allen added.
"We are staging our skimming vessels and other assets in a manner that will allow us to promptly restart oil mitigation efforts as soon as the storm passes and we can ensure the safety of our personnel," he said.
The threat of bad weather has already delayed efforts to plug the well at its source deep beneath the sea bed. Engineers were obliged to suspend work on the first of two relief wells that are being drilled down to the source, setting back the final procedure to plug it.
They had been expecting to spend this week reinforcing the last section of the relief well with concrete, which would have allowed an attempt to plug the well with heavy mud over this weekend. Now that will be delayed .
A federal investigation panel in New Orleans continues its exploration of the causes of the disaster which began on 20 April when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. A widow of one of the 11 workers who died, Natalie Roshto, told the hearing on Thursday that he had been anxious about conditions on the rig before it went up. She said that her husband Shane had called it the oil well "from hell" and told her: "Mother Nature just doesn't want us to drill here."
Meanwhile a Senate committee has called on BP boss Tony Hayward to testify before it on whether the company played any role in the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from prison in Scotland last year. It has been suggested BP lobbied for his release in the hope of securing a lucrative oil deal with Libya.
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