BP caps leaking cofferdam

PORT FOURCHON, La. - A pollution containment chamber is hoisted onto the deck of the motor vessel Joe Griffith as the ship is prepared to depart Wild Well Control May 5, 2010. The chamber was designed to cap the oil discharge that was a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley.

Containment: BP plugs leaking stovepipe near Macondo site

Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick

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Luke Johnson

 25 October 2012 17:16 GMT

UK supermajor BP said on Thursday that it has capped the containment dome used to trap oil from the blown-out Macondo well after a leak from the container was found to be the source of an oil sheen spotted near the site of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.

BP on Tuesday deployed remotely operated vehicles from the offshore construction vessel Skandi Neptune to the 86-tonne, 122-metre-tall steel containment dome, also known as a cofferdam.

The ROVs installed a 340-kilogramme cap over the cofferdam's "stovepipe" and secured it in place with clamps, while also inserting plugs into four small connection ports on the top and sides of the cofferdam.

The operation, approved by the US Coast Guard, took 26 hours to complete, BP said in a statement.

"Initial visual inspections of the cap and plugs have observed no oil droplets emanating from…

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