Houston - BP tested equipment on Tuesday to deliver the first of two planned killer punches to permanently plug its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well that caused the world's worst accidental oil spill.
As engineers from the British-based company ironed out last-minute technical hitches before the initial "static kill" operation, which could take place on Tuesday, new revised US government figures showed that almost 5 million barrels of oil leaked before the well was provisionally capped in mid-July.
This made the spill, that began in April following a deadly rig explosion and sinking at the BP-owned deepwater Macondo well, the world's largest accidental release of oil, surpassing the 1979 Ixtoc well blowout in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. The Ixtoc well gushed almost 3 million barrels.
The Macondo spill, already the worst in US history, has unleashed an environmental and economic catastrophe on the US Gulf Coast, disrupting the livelihoods of fishermen and tourism operators and triggering a barrage of damages lawsuits against BP. The company has said it will pay all legitimate claims and clean up fouled beaches and marshes.
The new leak estimates spelled further bad news for BP, which also faces an investigation by US securities regulators into whether its employees profited illegally from the Gulf of Mexico spill. The revised flow numbers suggest the company had underestimated costs by at least $1bn.
US regulators are looking into potential insider trading in shares of BP, including by BP employees, two sources familiar with the probe told Reuters on Monday.
BP had estimated the well had leaked some 4 million barrels of oil and that it would be fined $1 100 per barrel under the Clean Water Act. The company faces fines of $4 300 per barrel if gross negligence is proven, but said it saw no need to change its provision as a result of the new estimate.
"Given these new figures, BP could be fined $4.5bn if gross negligence is not proven, or up to $14bn if it is," one dealer said.
BP, which took a $32.2bn charge related to the spill in its results last week, has said it will sell $25bn to $30bn of assets to pay for the spill. Kuwait's oil minister said his state-owned Kuwait Petroleum International may be interested in buying some of the assets.
BP said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell its Colombian oil unit to a consortium of Canada's Talisman Energy and Ecopetrol, Colombia's national oil company, for $1.9bn.
BP shares initially fell around 1% in early trading on Tuesday, but later recovered.
Eyes on well kill
BP's 10% partner in the well, Japan's Mitsui, has yet to decide if it will shoulder any costs, helping the trading house to report a 79% jump in profits to
¥102.5bn ($1.18bn).
BP's other partner in the well, Anadarko Petroleum, which owns a 25% share, is due to report its second quarter results later on Tuesday.
Hopes for definitively plugging the well are focused on the planned "static kill", which will inject drilling mud, and possibly later cement, into the top of the well, the first step of a two-pronged operation to seal off the oil deposit.
A crucial test of the equipment that will deliver the "static kill" was delayed on Monday due to a hydraulic leak.
"It is anticipated that the injectivity test and possibly the static kill will take place on Tuesday," BP said in a brief statement late on Monday.
The planned "static kill" will be followed by the completion of a relief well later in August, which will seek to "bottom kill" the well by pumping in more mud and cement.
The Flow Rate Technical Group and a team of government scientists said that of the 4.9 million barrels of oil released by the well, BP had siphoned only about 16% to surface vessels, while the rest went into the sea.
The group's previous leak estimate ranged from 35 000 to 60 000 barrels a day.
With the peak of the annual hurricane season approaching, authorities are worried that tropical storms could disrupt the well-kill and clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical Storm Colin formed in the central Atlantic Ocean early on Tuesday, but most computer weather models show the system tracking northwest toward Bermuda, and not toward key oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Reuters