Some 15 weeks after the well ruptured and 21 days after the flow was fully stemmed with a temporary cap, the massive oil slick that once stretched for hundreds of miles is rapidly disappearing from the Gulf.

But officials cautioned that a great deal of clean-up work remained and that the long-term impact of the disaster could be felt for years, even decades.

"This is not the end, but it will virtually assure us that there will be no chance of oil leaking into the environment," spill response chief Thad Allen told reporters.

In a long-awaited breakthrough, BP brought the well under control Wednesday after pumping heavy drilling fluid into the busted Macondo well for eight hours, forcing the oil back down into the reservoir miles beneath the seabed.

The British energy giant then began pumping cement at 09:15 CDT (1415 GMT), and the "static kill" operation was completed in five hours.

"Monitoring of the well is underway in order to confirm the effectiveness of the procedure," BP said in a statement.

The final phase will involved pumping mud and cement through a relief well into the outer ring, or annulus, of the well and possible into the well casing.

"Depending upon weather conditions, mid-August is the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will intercept the Macondo well annulus," BP said.

It took 106 days to shut the well down in the wake of a devastating explosion on April 20 that killed 11 workers and sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, unleashing a torrent of oil into the Gulf.

At 4.9 million barrels -- or enough oil to fill 311 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- the disaster is the biggest maritime spill on record.

It threatened the fish and wildlife-rich US Gulf coast with environmental ruin and plunged residents of coastal communities into months of anguish over their livelihoods and the region's future.

A government report released Wednesday found that a third of the oil was captured or mitigated through burning, skimming, chemical dispersion and direct recovery from the wellhead.

Mother Nature took care of much of the rest.

Heat from the sun helped some of the chemicals in the crude evaporate. Waves and currents broke the slick up into smaller patches. Then the microbes that feed on natural oil seeping in the Gulf got to work, it said.

"At least 50 percent of the oil that was released is now completely gone from the system," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"And most of the remainder is degrading rapidly, or is being removed from the beaches."

But Lubchenco was quick to stress that scientists will not be able to determine for a long time the full extent of the damage.

"The oil that was released and has already impacted wildlife at the surface, young juvenile stages and eggs beneath the surface, will likely have very considerable impacts for years and possibly decades to come," she told reporters at a White House briefing.

The problem, she explained, is that oil is still toxic even when it has been broken down into very small droplets.

About 24 percent of the Gulf's federal waters remain closed to fishing, and even when fishermen are able to fill their nets they fear consumers might not believe the seafood is safe to eat.

With tourists likely to avoid Gulf beaches for years and oil industry jobs under threat from Obama's moratorium on new deep sea drilling permits, the future remains bleak for many coastal communities.

"It's impossible to know how this thing is ultimately going to play out," said Matt O'Brian, owner of a shrimp and crab processing dock in the coastal town of Venice, Louisiana.

O'Brian welcomed the news that the well was finally under control, but said it "can't overcome the atmosphere of uncertainty lingering out at sea."

He's worried about the oil's impact on crab and shrimp populations and wonders if there will ever be a market for Louisiana seafood.

Todd Goodman, who works for the local government and runs a trailer park as a sideline, agreed.

"There is enormous pressure on BP to claim that everything is fine now. But what scares me and a lot of other folks around here is the notion that everybody - BP, the Coast Guard, law enforcement, cleanup crews - will suddenly pull up stakes and leave," he said. "Then, two months later -- boom! -- more oil washes up on us."

earlier related report
BP gets nod to seal runaway well in Gulf of Mexico
New Orleans, Louisiana (AFP) Aug 5, 2010 - BP got the go ahead to seal in cement its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, one of the final steps to plug the oil spill at the center of the worst US environmental disaster.

US officials said oil was rapidly disappearing from the Gulf, but cautioned that a great deal of clean-up work remained and that the long-term impact of the disaster could be felt for years, even decades.

In the long-awaited breakthrough, BP brought the well under control Wednesday after pumping heavy drilling fluid into the busted Macondo well for eight hours, forcing the oil back down into the reservoir miles beneath the seabed.

We "have reached a static condition in the well that allows us to have high confidence that there will be no oil leaking into the environment," spill response chief Thad Allen told reporters at a White House briefing.

BP said it would begin Thursday to cement over the well, permanently shutting it in, after Allen authorized the British energy giant to proceed.

"The aim of the procedure is to assist with the strategy to kill and isolate the well, and will complement the upcoming relief well operation," the British energy giant said in a statement.

In giving the green light, Allen emphasized that the cementing should "in no way delay the completion of the relief well," expected to be finished in mid-August to seal the well permanently.

"So, the long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is finally close to coming to an end. And we are very pleased with that," President Barack Obama said. "Our recovery efforts, though, will continue. We have to reverse the damage that's been done."

It took 106 days to shut the well down in the wake of a devastating explosion on April 20 that killed 11 workers and sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, unleashing a torrent of oil into the Gulf.

At 4.9 million barrels -- or enough oil to fill 311 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- the disaster is the biggest maritime spill on record.

It threatened the fish and wildlife-rich US Gulf coast with environmental ruin and plunged residents of coastal communities into months of anguish over their livelihoods and the region's future.

A government report released Wednesday found that a third of the oil was captured or mitigated through burning, skimming, chemical dispersion and direct recovery from the wellhead.

Heat from the sun helped some of the chemicals in the crude evaporate. Waves and currents broke the slick up into smaller patches. Then the microbes which feed on natural oil seeping in the Gulf got to work, it said.

"At least 50 percent of the oil that was released is now completely gone from the system," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"And most of the remainder is degrading rapidly, or is being removed from the beaches."

But Lubchenco was quick to stress that scientists will not be able to determine for a long time the full extent of the damage.

"The oil that was released and has already impacted wildlife at the surface, young juvenile stages and eggs beneath the surface, will likely have very considerable impacts for years and possibly decades to come," she told reporters at the White House briefing.

The problem, she explained, is that oil is still toxic even when it has been broken down into very small droplets.

About 24 percent of the Gulf's federal waters remain closed to fishing, and even when fishermen are able to fill their nets they fear consumers might not believe the seafood is safe to eat.

With tourists likely to avoid Gulf beaches for years and oil industry jobs under threat from Obama's moratorium on new deep sea drilling permits, the future remains bleak for many coastal communities.

BP, meanwhile, is hoping to rebuild its shattered reputation but must also meet the claims of thousands of individuals and businesses whose livelihoods have been washed away, while a mammoth civil trial looms.

BP senior vice president Kent Wells expressed relief that 20 days after the flow of oil in the sea was stemmed with a temporary cap "it's very difficult for us to find any oil anywhere on the surface."

He refused, however, to declare victory until the well is permanently sealed.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News