BP to use giant box to tackle Gulf oil spill

A specially-built giant concrete-and-steel box designed to siphon oil away was being brought into use today as a short-term solution to bottling up the disastrous oil spill threatening sea life and livelihoods along the Gulf Coast of America.

A barge will haul the 100-ton contraption 50 miles offshore to a spot where a mile-deep gusher from a blown-out undersea well has been spewing at least 210,000 gallons of crude oil a day into the Gulf for two weeks. BP spokesman John Curry said it would be deployed on the seabed by tomorrow.

It’s the latest idea engineers from oil giant BP PLC are trying after an oil rig the company was operating exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers. It sank two days later.

BP is in charge of the clean-up and President Barack Obama and many others have said the company also is responsible for the costs.

BP capped one of three leaks at the well last night, a step that will not cut the flow of oil but that BP has said will make it easier to help with the gusher.

Meanwhile, the effort to protect Louisiana coastal wetlands was expected to pick up.

In Plaquemines Parish, officials loaded absorbent boom shortly after dawn to take out to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The barge will be used as a distribution point for local fishermen to lay the boom around sensitive marshes.

At a nearby marina, local shrimpers planned to use their boats to put down boom as part of a program BP is running.

In all, about 7,900 people are working to protect the shoreline and wildlife, and some 170 boats are also helping with the clean-up.

A rainbow sheen of oil has reached land in parts of Louisiana, but forecasts showed the oil wasn’t expected to come ashore for at least a couple more days.

“It’s a gift of a little bit of time. I’m not resting,” US Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said.

In their worst-case scenario, BP executives told members of a congressional committee that up to 2.5 million gallons a day could spill if the leaks worsened, though it would be more like 1.7 million gallons. In an exploration plan filed with the government in February 2009, BP said it could handle a “worst-case scenario” it described as a leak of 6.8 million gallons per day from an uncontrolled blow-out.

Containment boxes have never been tried at this depth – about 5,000ft – because of the extreme water pressure. If all goes well, the contraption could be fired up early next week to start funnelling the oil into a tanker.

“We don’t know for sure” whether the equipment will work, Salvin said. “What we do know is that we have done extensive engineering and modelling and we believe this gives us the best chance to contain the oil, and that’s very important to us.”

The seas calmed yesterday, allowing more conventional methods to contain the spill to get back on track as businesses and residents kept an eye on the ocean currents, wondering when the sheen washing ashore in places might turn into a heavier coating of oil.

Crews put out more containment equipment and repaired some booms damaged in rough weather over the weekend. They also hoped to again try to burn some of the oil on the water’s surface today.

Chemical dispersants piped 5,000ft to the main leak have significantly reduced the amount of oil coming to the surface, BP said.

From the air, the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion looked similar to a week ago except for the appearance of a massive rig brought in to drill a relief well to shut off the spewing oil. That will take months.