BP: ‘Oil is going to flow for a while’

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By David Eldridge

The Washington Times

Sunday, May 30, 2010

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After the latest failure to stem the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and Obama administration officials took to the Sunday talk shows to outline the next step: another attempt to place a containment dome over the gushing well.

BP Managing Director Robert Dudley, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the failure of “top kill,” the effort to plug the well with mud and concrete, means “the oil is going to flow for a while.”

But Mr. Dudley said that the company had learned lessons from an earlier failed attampt to place a containment dome over the well, and he said the odds are better with this attempt than with “top kill,” on which the company pulled the plug Saturday night.

“If we can contain the flow of the well between now and August [when a permanent relief well is completed], that’s also a good outcome,” Mr. Dudley said. “That’s not a bad outcome compared to where we are today.”

The new containment dome operation could take another week.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Dudley said that the accident on the Deep Horizon platform was “unprecedented” and that company officials have not misled the government officials working with the company.

About the Author

David Eldridge

David Eldridge joined The Washington Times in 1999 and over the next seven years helped lead the paper’s coverage of regional politics and government, Sept. 11, and the sniper attacks of 2002. In 2006, he was named managing editor of the paper’s Web site. He came to The Times from the Telegraph in North Platte, Neb., where he served as ...