BP Starts Junk Shot

In a move called a junk shot, the British oil giant added chunks of rubber and other material into drilling mud being pumped into the well to help create pressures great enough to overcome the flow of oil so the well can be capped with cement, said Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer.

BP’s Macondo well, a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico, blew out on April 20, destroying the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 workers and triggering the oil spill.

BP made no claims of progress as the drilling mud procedure, called a top kill, entered its third day and as President Barack Obama visited Louisiana’s coastal communities to assess the response to the spill, now the biggest in the nation’s history. Obama also announced an increase in manpower to deal with the crisis.

Chron