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BP's first attempt to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico with a 6-inch tube has failed, according to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
At a news conference in Buras Saturday morning, Salazar told reporters that BP had to reconfigure the tube and is trying to insert it again today. The tube will be pushed directly into the pipe 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf, acting as a straw to suck oil up to a ship waiting to collect the oil.
"There was a problem. They had to reconfigure. They are back down again ... trying to get it inserted," he told reporters, declining to offer further information.
BP PLC has offered scant details of its progress in trying to thread the 6-inch tube into the 21-inch pipe spewing oil from the ocean floor. Company spokesmen said technicians are continuing the methodical work of using joysticks to guide the deep-sea robots that are manipulating the contraption, but wouldn't elaborate on Salazar's report.
"We've never done such operations before and we need to take our time to get it right," spokesman Jon Pack said in an e-mail Saturday.
The tube is intended to suck oil up like a straw to a tanker on the surface, while a stopper surrounding it would keep crude from leaking into the sea.
At least 210,000 gallons of oil -- and much more, according to some estimates -- are pouring into the Gulf each day, threatening fisheries, wildlife and Louisiana's fragile wetlands.
This afternoon, federal officials released a copy of a letter from Salazar and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to BP Chief Executive Anthony Hayward. Salazar and Napolitano call for Hayward to make good on public statements by BP officials implying that the company will pay damages beyond the $75 million statutory cap and that it will not seek reimbursement from American taxpayers, the U.S. government or the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for any losses related to the spill.
"The public has a right to a clear understanding of BP's commitment to redress all of the damage that has occurred or that will occur in the future as a result of the oil spill," they wrote. "Therefore, in the event that our understanding is inaccurate, we request immediate public clarification of BP's true intentions."
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