NEW ORLEANS — The government’s oil spill chief said Monday that workers expect to begin the two-step process of finally killing BP’s blown-out Gulf of Mexico well next week.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the so-called “static kill” — in which mud and cement are blasted into the top of the well — should start Monday.
A relief well is nearly complete for the final stage, a “bottom kill” in which mud and cement are pumped in from deep underground. Allen said that work could begin Aug. 7 and could take days or weeks, depending on how well the static kill works.
Lockerbie-BP link to be explored in hearing
British and Scottish officials who have declined to appear at a hearing this week on the 2009 release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi should reconsider in order to dispel “a cloud of suspicion” over the issue, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. said Monday.
Senators are probing whether an oil exploration deal between oil giant BP and Libya influenced the decision. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has a hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Al-Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. He was sentenced to life in prison, but Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill decided last August to release him on compassionate grounds because the Libyan was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The decision outraged victims’ families and drew criticism from U.S. officials.
In September, BP acknowledged it had expressed concern to the British government about the progress of the prisoner transfer deal but said it had not raised the case of al-Megrahi. BP signed a $900 million exploration agreement with Libya in 2007.
Hundreds of turtles released into Gulf
Federal biologists in Texas released hundreds of endangered baby sea turtles into the Gulf of Mexico on Monday despite the oil fouling the waters 400 miles away.
The Kemp’s ridley turtle hatchlings are 1 to 4 days old.
The decision has stirred controversy among some scientists, environmentalists and turtle lovers. Some say the release should have been delayed until the oil is cleaned. But biologists believe that baby turtles released in areas not directly affected by the oil would suffer greater harm if they were held in captivity until the slick is cleaned.
The release is an annual event. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, and volunteers, collect nests and eggs from Padre Island beaches and incubate them, waiting for them to hatch, in an effort to replenish the species.
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