Oil Spill, Day 84: The Cap Comes Down

BP locked down its new sealing cap — “the 3 ram stack” — around 7 p.m. CST last night and a new container ship connected to the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well an hour later, raising hopes that more oil — maybe even all of it — can be captured before it spills into the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen has been sounding optimistic notes about the effort, telling ABC News that the response team is “very close” to capturing all of the oil flow. The permanent fix remains the two relief wells still being drilled.

That will still leave years of cleanup ahead and untold numbers of claims to be settled. Our Gulf Leak Meter shows more than 90 million gallons of crude may have spilled since the Deepwater Horizon sank in late April. You can watch the latest efforts in our live video feed, which tracks all of the BP underwater cameras.

 

 

The photos above, released by BP, show parts of the process of installing the new cap. BP vice president Kent Wells has technical explanations here and here.