Starting at around 3:45 a.m. EST, the BOP was unlatched from the well, and pulled at around 3:55 a.m. EST.
Videos below the fold.
peraspera got video of it all:
From peraspera's comments:
DDII ROV 2 Chemical Injection Ops (14:04)
Puts a hot stab in the ROV Wellhead Connector Chemical Injection port at 0:18, center gauge moves slightly at 1:17, pulls hotstab at 7:49 (21:11:49 on video timestamp). You can't tell where the white hose at the end of the video is connected but there appears to be a white hose under the bell at the wellhead connector.
DDII ROV 1 Monitoring Chemical Injection (14:07)
You can see what looks like a white hose in the first part of the video which might be the same one shown in the Chemical Injection Ops video. There is some sort of green cloud starting to come down from under the bell right after they shift views at 3:07. It's most clearly visible between about 4:30 and 7:00.
I saw the hot stab leaking green stuff when they did this before. Between that and them running simultaneous chemical injection ops and monitoring chemical injections it would be reasonable to assume they have something rigged up to help keep the hydrates off the bell at the wellhead rather than having to use the duct-taped garden hose so often.
View from DDII-2 of them pulling the BOP:
Video(11:05) The pulling starts 0:55 in.
And finally, video of BOP unlatched and removed
We know the well has leaks around the outside of the casing, and what impact this will have on the pressure already on the reservoir we don't know. It seems likely BP will have to produce this well from another, new well in order to relieve that pressure and prevent future disasters.
Who will be watching this wellhead in the future is unknown. If anyone will be watching. But if there are feeds to watch, we'll be watching for sure.
The procedure (presumably the Plug and Abandon of the Macondo well, but that remains to be known for certain) is ongoing, and you can watch for yourselves:
20876/21507 - Development Driller II's ROV 1
32900/49178 - Development Driller II's ROV 2
I can't be around much for comments today, but someone from Gulf Watchers will certainly be here to answer any comments or questions.