One of the things one should always understand when you do a test is what criteria indicates a pass and what indicates a failure. You do not do a test just to “see what will happen” which appears to be what BP was doing.
In this case (maybe a first) I would agree with the government if they asked for more information about how the test results would be read. Personally, it seems to me that BP may not know what a good result would be and if so, not doing the test is the best option— and as you say they can keep collecting the oil — none is going into the water at this time.
The concern from BP is to understand the levels of pressure needed to ensure success when they try to kill the well from the bottom using the relief well. But right now they have the oil spill stopped. Maybe we should collect oil and let the reservoir pressure drop for a while? Isn’t this what the well was for in the first place? Well OK, huricane season is upon us, that may mean we have to take some action to stabilize things in the event of a storm. BP could be looking at this as well.
They had specific pass-fail criteria. The issue is that during top kill, some uncertainty developed about the integrity of the casing. The fear is that, because shutting in the well increases internal pressure, that situation will worsen. There’s really only two options: reduce the flow while keeping a close eye on pressure, ready to re-open at the first sign of leakage, or let it continue to flow. There is no perfect choice.
From Kent’s morning chat:
Clearly we want to move forward with this as soon as we’re ready to do it. But what we don’t want to do is move forward with a test that ends up with inconclusive results. And so that’s what the 24 hours is about. We just need to make sure that there’s absolute clarity on this is the right test, this will give us the most information, this will minimize the risk and we can proceed forward and as a result of that then know the best path forward after that, whether it’s to shut in the well, whether it’s to go to containment, what does it mean for the kill with the relief wells. All of those things. We just need to make sure that this is right not – as much as we want to do things as soon as possible, we also want to make sure that they’re done absolutely correct.
none is going into the water at this time.
I believe they are currently not taking ANY ...certainly the top of the new cap structure is open.