Page 3 - Drilling Process News Today

capping out of all that oil gushing into the gulf of mexico. workers have managed to insert a four-inch tube down to the spill site, capturing some of the leaking oil and pumping it to a ship on the surface of the gulf. after weeks of bad news, theyre calling it a positive step forward. >> we ran the -- they call it the riser insertion tube tool. and they ran it last night and started to get oil up to the surface into the drill ship. then we had a small problem and the tool came out of...

Going to be able to siphon off and prevent from going into the environment. thats been the full focus of this operation, is to stem the flow of oil not water. and at this point, bp cant say exactly how much theyre going to succeed at doing that. >> can you answer this next question, where do we go from here, whats next in this process, david? >> whats next, now that theyve tak taken this step to stem the floesh flow, they have to stop the flow. theyre looking at injecting a substance called kill...

Today an investigation from national public radio shows the gulf spill may be ten times worse than first estimated. h so far bp has not been able to cap the leak. also rising to the surface today there is new criticism of government oversight of the drilling process. today president obama said the system failed badly. >> for too long, for a decade or more, theres been a cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency that permits them to drill. it seems as if permits were too ...

Exploretary well exploded and set in motion the massive oil spill threatening the entire gulf of mexico, the interior department exempted the oil company from intense regulatory scrutiny. they were granted what is known as categorical exemption from the minimal management service which reports to the interior secretary ken salazar. that means the exploratory drilling process and plans to deal with a spill if one should occur evaded several environmental reviews. >> they cut corners and went stra...

This is the only device that they have thats capable of doing this. this say one of a kind job, never, ever tried before. >> so, david, this i take it is a temporary fix, its just to stop the oil from spewing out. long-term, what do they plan to do? >> reporter: thats right. this is going to go over the largest of the leaks. theyve got two leaks they have to cap still. this is go going over the largest of those leaks. its going to funnel that oil to a containment vessel on the surface. its going...

>> reporter: before the exploretary well exploded and set in motion the massive oil spill threatening the entire gulf of mexico, the interior department exempted the oil company from intense regulatory scrutiny. they were granted what is known as categorical exemption from the minimal management service which reports to the interior secretary ken salazar. that means the exploratory drilling process and plans to deal with a spill if one should occur evaded several environmental reviews. >> they c...

Miners had gotten into a sort of rescue chamber. we believe if by some miracle they had gotten inside theyd have about 24 hours of supply left of oxygen. authorities say there is time if chance against chance they did get in there but authorities say at this point they cannot risk the lives of 32 rescue workers even to save the lives of four. >> so, brian, what are they doing right now to prepare for a re-entry? what kind of operations are taking place around the mine that would allow them to go...

Killed 25 workers, but there is a slim chanlsz that four missing miners may be alive. its not clear yet when the rescue attempt can resume, but west virginia governor, joe manchin, said we should know by the end of the day. lets go straight to west virginia. brooke baldwin standing by there. brooke, any update on that? >> reporter: yeah, you know, we should be hearing from the governor, hopefully, ali, in about an hour and a half. thats really the next opportunity we as members of the media wi...

Its sort of the same kind of drilling process that you use to drill oil. sort of a three-story rig that is drilling down into the ground, fairly slowly, by our perspective, and they got one of these holes down a thousand feet and they said they did it so quickly that they started a second one very quickly with that same rig. there is another one thats drilling at about the same time so theyre hoping to get three holes down at the same time. that helps them get some of this gas out of there. not ...

Close proximity, that a lot of the noise were hearing with those microphones naturally are going to be the drilling process thats actually going on. we need a quiet period where nothing is being used, no equipment is being used. everything shuts down for a short period of time. put the three shots off and then well watch the monitoring equipment, the seismic equipment to see if anything is detected. >> when you say shots, what exactly are they, kevin? theyre not gunshots. youre banging on the pi...