Robot sub used to plug deep Gulf oil leak
Crews were using a robot submarine to try to stop an oil leak nearly 2km below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, but officials said it would take at least another day before they knew whether the job was completed. It could take hours or it could take months to stop the 15,900-litre-a-day oil leak at the site of a wrecked drilling platform. Whether the environmental threat grows many times bigger depends on whether the oil company can turn off the well completely. Crews are using robot submarines to activate valves at the well head in hopes of cutting off the leak, which threatens the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem of shrimp, fish, birds and coral. If the effort fails, they'll have to start drilling again. The submarine work will take 24 to 36 hours, Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, said yesterday. "I should emphasise this is a highly complex operation being performed at 1520m below the surface and it may not be successful."