British oil company BP said a so-called static kill operation meant to seal a leaking oil riser in the Gulf of Mexico could start Tuesday.
BP was able to place a temporary cap over a leaking oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in July. The company's Deepwater Horizon oil platform
caught fire and sank April 22, leading to one of the worst oil spills in history.
BP engineers said they would start testing to determine whether infrastructure at the bottom of the gulf could handle the static kill operation. If the tests are positive, the company said it could start the procedure Tuesday.
The company said in its latest update on the containment effort that a hydraulic leak was discovered on the capping system, preventing engineers from moving forward with the static kill for a few hours.
"It is anticipated that the injectivity test and possibly the static kill will take place Tuesday," the company said.
The static kill will be followed by a final "bottom kill" once a relief well intercepts the ruptured well. BP said that process could start 5 to 7 days
after the static kill is finished.
The static kill procedure involves pouring a mixture of mud and cement into a broken well on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. The process was delayed
after debris from Tropical Storm Bonnie halted containment efforts in the region in July.
U.S. Coast Guard retired Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander for the Deepwater Horizon response, told reporters "the range to complete the
entire operation could be anywhere from about 33 to 61 hours."