According to Admiral Thad Allen's Monday morning briefing on the federal response to BP's oil spill, one of the key remaining challenges in BP's latest containment gambit is closing the vents of the production cap placed over the leaking pipe:
Good morning. First a quick operational update. In the last 24 hours, the production of the Discover Enterprise over the wellhead produced 11,000 barrels of oil. They continue to increase -- over the first three days of operation we have gone from 6,000 to 11,000 -- trying to increase that production rate, ultimately close the venting valves and move to a greater capacity.
BP anticipates moving another craft in that can actually handle additional production, and the combination of these two -- the vessel is actually called the Q4000 -- combined will have a production capability of about 20,000 barrels a day. And we're looking to increase production, as I said, so we can slowly close those vents and see how the containment cap is working and whether or not any oil is forced down by the pressure through the rubber seals, as we've talked about before.
But while Allen was saying that closing the vents is a key priority, the New York Times this morning reports that BP had already stopped trying to close the vents -- on Sunday.
On Sunday, engineers halted their efforts to close all four vents on the capping device, because even with one vent closed, the amount of oil being captured was approaching 15,000 barrels a day, the processing capacity of the collection ship at the surface.
Note that according to the Times, the reason BP stopped trying to close the vents was that they did not have sufficient surface production capacity. That's consistent with what Thad Allen said: that BP needs to expand its surface production capacity in order to handle a greater flow of oil that would come from closing the vents. (Echoes of Fishgrease, eh?)
Now here's where it gets interesting: while Thad Allen and the New York Times (and Fishgrease!) are focused on BP's need to expand its surface production capacity, BP is arguing that closing the vents is no big deal, and that they don't need to do it at all.
Here's BP executive Kent Wells talking about the vents at a briefing yesterday afternoon (after Allen's):
We've got oil and mainly gas coming out of the chimney vents at the top [of the production cap]. When we originally started to work with the tool, we thought that one of the keys to optimizing our ability to collect would be to close down those chimneys. In fact, what we found is our optimization is really done at the chokes on surface and leaving those vents open gives us great operability and I think the engineering and technical operations teams have learned a lot over the last three days about what we can do to optimize the collection we get from them...
...We believed that we would need to close those vents to avoid water coming in and that that would be the predominate factor in optimization. What we've actually found is that as we open the chokes at the surface we're still able to keep sufficient pressure that we don't have a lot of water coming in yet and it actually gives us the flexibility whenever we have to have an emergency shutdown...
...[When ships are forced to change heading due to external factors like weather] having those vents open gives us more flexibility so the LMRP cap doesn't come off. Those vents being open gives us flexibility, yet it hasn't affected our ability to collect. We had closed one of the valves but we haven't had to close all four yet, which is really different [Note: Wells may have said difficult].
...What our belief was that it would be difficult for us to operate it properly without closing them, but that has not proven to be the case. In fact, it might be helping us a bit...
...It hasn't been a factor that has gotten in the way of the team optimizing the oil that they've collected.
To review: Allen and the NYT say BP does not currently have sufficient surface production capacity to handle the oil flowing from the gushing well, but when (or, perhaps, if) BP achieves that capacity, then the vents can be closed.
Meanwhile, BP says the vents aren't having any impact on their ability to collect oil and in fact may be helpful. And complicating all of this, BP also says they are designing an entirely new cap to place on the well head sometime in July.
So here's the question: Why is BP on a different page than Allen? At least on the surface, it seems like they are less concerned with containing all the oil than he is. Why?
And here's the real point: Why are questions like this still lingering? If the administration wants to convey that it's in charge, then it needs to flatten things like this. If Allen got his facts wrong, then that's an issue that needs to be dealt with. And if BP is playing games, then it's time to "kick some ass." As long as confusing, contradictory information continues to flow, it's going to be impossible for the government to establish credibility. If BP is lying, say so, and say it bluntly. But don't send mixed signals and don't tell different stories. This is a crisis -- there's no way to muddle through it. It's a test that you either pass or fail.