July 5 - With only 12.8% of Gulf of Mexico oil production curtailed July 2, operators were shrugging off the impact of Hurricane Alex while the Macondo oil spill response group was projecting a July 7 target for installation of a third containment device.

Although incident commander Thad Allen reported that BP is seven or eight days ahead of schedule on its first relief well as the ultimate Macondo solution, he also declined to adjust the mid-August target date for interception, citing the difficult challenges ahead as the relief well nears the original wellbore.

Allen also revealed that industry leaders have been discussing the possibility of building new pipelines to connect the leaking Macondo well with four nearby platforms in the event BP fails to kill Macondo with both of its relief wells.

But the 11th week of the Macondo crisis ended with responders prepared to resume all activities after delays from rough seas caused by Alex, which made landfall June 30 far to the south in northern Mexico.

That crisis began April 20 with a blowout at BP's Macondo exploration well in 4,993 feet of water about 40 miles from Venice, Louisiana.

The blowout eventually destroyed Transocean's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and has created the largest marine oil spill in US history with the well leaking an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 b/d while BP tries to contain the flow with a combination of two experimental devices and drills two relief wells to permanently cap it.

Besides delaying the Macondo response, Alex's arrival in the Gulf last week also prompted curtailment of some Gulf production despite missing the region's producing area with its southern track.

By July 2, however, operators had remanned their platforms to a point where only 205,077 b/d of oil production and 694,000 Mcf/d of natural gas, 12.8% and 10.8% respectively, were off line, according to the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement -- formerly the US Minerals Management Service.

Although Alex forced suspension of oil spill removal operations and work on BP's third containment option, two other containment devices continued to divert oil from Macondo at an average rate of 25,000 b/d during the hurricane break.

And the relief wells continued to drill.

"The folks at BP have a depth-to-date chart. It was originally scheduled for mid-August, but they are ahead of schedule. I am reluctant to tell you it will happen ahead of August, but they are about seven to eight days ahead of schedule," Allen said during his update.

The retired Coast Guard admiral also outlined the three contingency plans under consideration in the event the first relief well fails to kill Macondo, revealing that the industry has discussed building new pipelines to connect Macondo to other platforms in the area if BP cannot plug it.

Describing it as an "idea" under review, Allen said the American Petroleum Institute and "members of industry" are considering plans on "how they would-–could lay pipelines from the wellbore to other production facilities that are in the area two, three, four, five miles and actually pump that oil back down into reservoirs that have been depleted where it's not a problem."

Primarily, however, Allen said the main contingency is a second relief well also under way.

In addition, Allen said BP could just continue to produce Macondo at a projected rate of 80,000 b/d, using the four containment systems that could be in place by the middle of July.

At that rate, he said the containment systems would likely be capturing most of the estimated 35,000 to 60,000 b/d believed to be leaking from Macondo.

While discussing those contingency options for failure of the relief wells, however, Allen also emphasized the view that BP and other experts remain confident a relief well will provide a permanent solution for Macondo.

Currently BP has two of the four planned containment devices in place, and those diverted a total of 25,154 barrels of oil from the leak in the last 24 hours, he said.

The third device had been expected to increase containment to 53,000 b/d by June 30, but the arrival of Alex has delayed its installation until July 7.

A fourth containment method has still not been officially approved, Allen said, because installation would require removal of the current containment cap and replacement with a tighter sealing model.

If successful, that fourth device would boost containment to 80,000 b/d and also provide greater flexibility for disconnecting in the event of a hurricane while waiting for the relief well to intercept the original Macondo wellbore in August.

But Allen said the government's technical team is reviewing that option to make sure the risks of removing the current cap do not outweigh the potential reward of containing more of the escaping oil.

"It could be that we are recovering a substantial amount of oil at that point," said Allen, noting the potential for successfully containing 53,000 b/d through next week's installation of pipes to the kill lines on the side of the Macondo blowout preventer.

"I think we'll know that just by visual inspection of what's coming out around that skirt or the rubber seal at the bottom," Allen said.

"All factors are being reviewed right now," he said, describing the next seven to 10 days as the window for a decision on replacing the cap.

With Hurricane Alex moving into Mexico, Allen said the response team will be resuming flights to inspect boom damage and determining when skimming operations can begin again.

He also said the response team was closely monitoring another tropical disturbance in the Gulf to be prepared for evacuation if it develops.

Allen has warned that any evacuation of the response team could leave Macondo leaking at full force for as long as two weeks.

In addition, the Coast Guard was scheduled to test the skimming powers of a highly touted Taiwanese tanker called the "A Whale" by watching it work a five-square-mile patch of slick as soon as weather permits, said Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft later in the day during a secondary briefing.

Dispatched from TMT Shipping of Taiwan, the 1,100-foot-long tanker has been redesigned to do the work of 500 skimming vessels and capture 300,000 to 400,000 b/d from the water.

"We have a team to assess the effectiveness of the A Whale as well," said Zukunft. "It is an assessment we are doing, but it brings a piece of technology never used before in US oil spill response."