Question by Lolita_Cra-z!!!: Is the “Top Kill” working? (oil spill)?
I want to know if the plan, Top kill, is working. (Oil spill)
Best answer:
Answer by focaris
So far it is working. They have injected enough drilling mud to match the pressure of the reservoir, temporarily halting the flow of oil.
The next part of the plan is to cement the well so that it is more permanently sealed. A backup plan is to fill up the blow-out protector with solid material so that if the oil begins flowing again, it will be constricted, and the leak will be smaller. It will take a few days until this work is complete and its effectiveness can be gauged.
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2 Responses
Hard to tell.
First they have to push enough mud through to push the oil coming up back down and stop it. Once this stable state is reached, they will change from mud to cement and push it down the pipe. Then they switch back to mud and wait for the cement to harden and form a cylinder of concrete in the hole below the well-head.
It will be two days before they know if it worked.
It was a failure. The pressure blew away the packing. See article link below.