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US Official Says Damaged Gulf Oil Well Is Secure

05 September 2010 02:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. official who has been overseeing the response to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico says the ruptured well no longer constitutes a threat of releasing more crude oil, APA reports quoting voanews.com website.
In the words of retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, â€œwe basically have secured this well.â€
Allen spoke after BP engineers replaced the wellâ€™s faulty safety value, called a blow-out preventer, to allow work on a relief well to proceed. Allen expects that within the next week, crews will be able to use the relief well to permanently seal the damaged well from the bottom.
The Deepwater Horizonâ€™s original blow-out preventer failed April 20, causing an explosion that killed 11 platform workers. Over the next three months millions of barrels on crude oil were released into the Gulf in the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Allen says the damaged device is to be examined by investigators looking into the exact cause of the explosion.
BP says it has spent $8 billion on its spill response.
In the meantime, more of the Gulf waters are being opened to fishing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says only about 17 percent of the Gulf remains closed.