2nd Attempt To Plug Timor Sea Oil Well Leak Fails - 100s Of Barrels/Day Flowing For Nearly 2 Months

[hatrack]

Each day for almost two months, hundreds of barrels have been flowing into the Timor Sea, although officials have conceded that it is impossible to know just how much oil has been spilt. The slick is about 160km from the Western Australian mainland, and slightly further from the Indonesian coast.

Two attempts to plug the leak have failed. Engineers have tried to cap a small hole 25cm wide that lies deep beneath the seabed.

They are expected to have another go towards the end of the week. Scott Ludlam, a Senator for the Australian Greens, says it is a complex task. "It underlines the extraordinary difficulty that they are facing in plugging the well," he said of the latest failure. "They are trying to hit a needle in a haystack 2.5km below sea level. So, it is not surprising, I suppose, that they've failed to plug the well on their second attempt.

"This is the worst oil spill in Australian waters since the mid-1980s and it really does not give us high hopes for the huge expansion of the oil and gas industry that is planned in the region," he added.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8306048.stm

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Maybe instead of trying to plug it...

They should try to collect it?

I don't know much about this sort of thing, but it seems to me that once the pressure's down a bit, it might be easier to plug.