Norway unveils well capping system

Work continues on equipment at the site of the BP oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico, in this file image captured from a July 14, 2010 BP video feed. April 20, 2011 is the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion at BP's Macondo undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident killed 11 workers and triggered the United States' worst offshore oil spill, which was also the biggest ever accidental release of oil into an ocean. REUTERS/BP/Handout/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: DISASTER ENERGY ANNIVERSARY ENVIRONMENT) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Blowout: new equipment will be used to tackle incidents like Macondo

HO

Steve Marshall

 15 March 2013 13:38 GMT

The first of four well containment systems that are to be deployed around the world to combat offshore blowouts was unveiled on Friday at a base in Stavanger, Norway.

The equipment has been developed by Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSRL) under a joint industry project  to improve the response capability for subsea well incidents in the wake of the Macondo blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.

The lack of a suitable system to cap the well led to substantial delays while one was built to tackle the incident at the BP-operated field, which resulted in a blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig that left 11 workers dead and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the US Gulf.

The…

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