[Lamplighter]

NY Times article 8/6/10


BP Done Pumping Cement Into Well

Because no significant amount of oil has leaked since the well was tightly capped on July 15, the start of the cementing was almost anticlimactic.

Although the static kill is likely to seal the volatile well permanently, final victory will not be declared until a relief well is completed and it intercepts the well in the middle to later part of August, according to both Admiral Allen and senior BP executives.

Admiral Allen said the mystery would be solved conclusively only by the relief well, and by a final pumping of mud and cement into any areas not reached by the static kill.
But Greg McCormack, program director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas Austin, said, that the fact that the cementing was finished so quickly “means they had a good cement job, which means that they probably cemented all the way down to the bottom in the production casing and reached the reservoir.”
He added, “If there aren’t any leaks anywhere else, that means this well is done.”