New Orleans: BP's experimental cap was holding on Saturday as the final hours ticked away in a two-day trial run to make sure it keeps oil from pouring into the Gulf of Mexico without blowing a new leak in the busted well.
Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said engineers glued to an array of pressure, temperature, sonar and other sensors were seeing no evidence of oil escaping into the water or the sea floor.
Undersea robots were also patrolling the well site for signs of trouble. A new breach underground was a major concern going into the test, because oil breaking out of pipes in the bedrock would be harder to control and could endanger plans for a permanent plug.
"We're feeling more comfortable," Wells said on a morning conference call, but cautioned: "The test is not over."
BP and the federal point man for the disaster, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, have said they may decide to reopen the cap at least partly after the 48-hour test period ends today around 0100 IST, although it's not clear what conditions would prompt them to do so.
That call will be made by Allen, Wells said. BP shut valves in the cap Thursday, stopping theflow of oil into the Gulf for the first time since the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased oil rig Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet below the sea.
With the cap working like a giant cork to keep the oil inside the well, scientists kept watch in case the buildup of pressure underground caused new leaks in the well pipe and in the surrounding bedrock that could make the disaster even worse.
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