HOUSTON (Reuters) – With a final shot of cement, BP Plc permanently “killed” its deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico that ruptured in April and unleashed the worst oil spill in US history, the top US spill official said yesterday.
Some 153 days after the Macondo well ruptured, the US government confirmed that BP had succeeded in drilling a relief well nearly 18,000 feet (3.4 miles/5.5 km) below the ocean surface and permanently sealing the well with cement.
“The Macondo 252 well is effectively dead,” retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who has overseen the US government’s response, said in a statement. “We can now state, definitively, that the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico.“
