Dome Work News Today

Dome. so far, the massive four-story structure hasnt worked as planned. hydrate crystals formed on it, blocking the top and causing it to float. meantime, tens of thousands of gallons of oil are still leaking out every single day, but our david mattingly told us, workers are willing to give it another try. >> reporter: bp is still trying to find a way to make this dome work. they say theyre going to take a couple of days to step back and figure out how to overcome this problem they encountered a...

To find a way to make this dome work. they say theyre going to take a couple of days to step back and figure out how to overcome this problem they encountered as they were attempting to lower it into place a day or so ago. what they encountered was something called hydrates. these are crystals formed by gas combining with water under the deep pressure and under the cold temperatures down at the bottom of the ocean. it was forming sort of like a slush inside that dome and clogging it up. so they ...

Leaking out every single day. our david mattingly tells us workers are willing to give it another try. >> reporter: bp is trying to find a way to make this dome work. they say theyre going to take a couple of days to step back and figure out how to overcome this problem they encountered as they were attempting to lower it into place a day or so ago. what they encountered was something called hydrates, crystals formed by gas combining with water under the hard -- the deep pressure and under the c...

Were live in louisiana. david, what are the other measures theyre looking at using now? >> don, bp is still trying to find a way to make this dome work. they say theyre going to take a couple of days to step back and figure out how to overcome the problem they encountered as they were attempting to lower into place a day or so ago. they encountered something called hydrates. these are crystals combining with water under the deep pressure and under the cold temperatures down at the bottom of the ...

Then? >> well, thats a good question. the long-term answer is theyve got to drill additional wells to pull the pressure off. but thats two to three months away. so i think that the opportunity that we have down there is to continue to try to make that dome work and i dont think anybody has got any other answers. there is no silverbullet on this problem. even once you get the dome over it, you still have to drill, make the other holes in there and start drilling to pull the pressure off. so frank...

Type material into that leaking pipe to, perhaps, clog it up. another is to install another blowout prevent r. the blowout preventer was the device that failed originally allowing this disaster to happen. they may try to install one of those. but those are waiting in the wings. theyre still trying to make this dome work. theyve got a couple of ideas they hope to have ironed out in the next couple of days to see if that will work. >> all right, david mattingly, thanks so much. of course, when tha...