BP has new option to use against leak

By MONICA HATCHER Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

May 12, 2010, 10:26PM

BP added another untested tool to its arsenal of spill containment options on Wednesday, a tube that engineers hope to slip into a break in a leaking pipe to intercept some of the 5,000 barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day.

The new option, called a riser insertion tube, was unveiled as a possible alternative to a smaller containment dome introduced earlier this week for capturing oil escaping from the ruptured Macondo well.

The well, under a mile of water, has been spitting crude and natural gas since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank more than three weeks ago, killing 11 rig workers.

BP, which has amassed hundreds of engineers, scientists and operations experts at its Houston command center to work on the problem, says it is devising numerous methods to contain the spill and permanently cap the well, so that when one fails, the next can be quickly deployed.

The company said it was still evaluating which approach to try next — the insertion tube or the small containment dome referred to as a top hat. Both will be ready for use late today or early Friday, said Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer.

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I went to sleep after watching AC360 where Anderson Cooper asked all to think of solutions.  Woke up early this morning dreaming this solution but could not figure out how to bring a counter-acting force.  Then I started dreaming taking a huge dead fish and stuffing that down the tube! LOL  Seriously. This is a nightmare. Any of us with any solution, got to send it to BP.