Page 17 - Containment System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Afternoon. a bp executive says that process would require the well to gush for three days to relieve the pressure. nbc's charles hadlock is in venice, louisiana. are they -- i mean, it's in the government's interest to siphon the oil to the top because they can get an accurate estimate of how much oil has leaked into the gulf, right? >> that's correct. but that involves letting the oil go through that well head into the gulf of mexico where the containment system would then siphon it off again. why do that when bp has successfully capped this well, apparently, by all indications the well is ca...

In place? now the coast guard says this is a testing period and bp totally agrees with that. that it is a testing period, but the coast guard also wants to remove the containment cap and go back to a containment system where they're siphoning oil back up to the surface, like we've been watching over the past few months or so. so the obama administration has a critical decision to make. bp says it is willing to keep going with the containment cap. it thinks it's the best measure. they will continue to monitor it hour by hour, day by day, until the relief well is in place and by the way there's ...

We have more. charles, set the scene. what are you looking at for today? >> reporter: good morning, contessa. today's going to be an interesting day because it will be the end of the 48-hour period with the 24-hour extension given by the coast guard yesterday. the containment cap is holding, as you mentioned, but admiral thad allen who's in charge of the command say ises at the end of the test period will take the cap off arks throw oil to flow into the gulf coast and put in the new containment cap, which is new and improved. collectively they can pick up, scoop up, and suck up more than 80,00...

Another six hours and six hours from now reassess. but they just don't know quite what they have yet. and as i said, the good news is, at least no oil is going into the gulf. >> and ann, what they're testing though is whether they can keep this sealed off for good, correct? because even worse case scenario at this point, they now have a controlled way to keep some oil flowing up to a containment system, correct? so overall, there's still a lot of success here, right? >> reporter: right. there is. originally this cap was designed to help move the oil up to the surface. it wasn't designed to shu...

As to whether or not they're going to continue with keeping all the valves shut and essentially shutting in the well or if they're going to go back to that containment system. it is a real possibility they go back to the containment system. so that's why they're trying very hard to manage expectations here. >> anne, is it a concern that if they keep all the valves shut that it could build up too much pressure and then just blows like you would, i mean, essentially like anybody you need to actually open the valve a little bit while they deal with the relief wells that they're digging? is that w...