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Britain: BP says cost of Macondo oil spill disaster now tops $6 billion

https://www.chemnet.com   Aug 10,2010
The cost of the response to the Macondo oil spill disaster in the US Gulf of Mexico now totals about $6.1 billion, operator BP said in a statement Monday.


The latest estimate includes the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, static kill and cementing, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs.


BP June 16 announced an agreed package of measures, including the creation of a $20 billion escrow account to satisfy obligations arising from the oil and gas spill. As of August 7, around 145,000 claims had been submitted and more than 103,900 payments made, totaling $319 million, the company said.


Meanwhile, BP said it believed the static kill and cementing procedures
it has undertaken at the well, which has been shut-in since July 15, have been
successful.


The company continues to progress the relief well operations that began
May 2 and the well is currently at a measured depth of 17,909 feet.
Progressing toward the intersect with the Macondo well, known as MC252, will
involve drilling alternating with ranging runs to confirm proximity to the
well, the company said.


"Depending upon weather conditions, August 15 is the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will intercept the MC252 well annulus," the company said.


Operations on the second relief well, which started May 16, have been suspended at a measured depth of 15,874 feet, so as not to interfere with the
completion of the first relief well.


The Macondo well began spewing oil into the Gulf after an explosion ripped through the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, killing 11 of the 126-person crew. The well's blowout preventer failed to activate, resulting in an oil leak that officials estimate was as high as 62,000 b/d in late April during the first phase of the disaster, before decreasing to an average of 53,000 b/d.
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