Washington (Platts)--19Jul2010/542 am EDT/942 GMT



A key US lawmaker blasted BP Sunday for announcing that it looked to keep the recently fitted cap closed on its blown-out Macondo well, saying the strategy would prevent the US government from accurately measuring how much oil and natural gas spewed into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of the last three months.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, expressed his concerns just hours after Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production, told reporters that BP hoped to keep the damaged well "shut in" with a special sealing cap until it can be killed with an emergency relief well in the coming weeks. Any resumption in ad hoc production at the site could provide data for determining how much oil had been flowing into the Gulf during the disaster.

"If the well remains fully shut in until the relief well is completed, we may never have a fully accurate determination of the flow rate from this well," Markey said in a letter to retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the Macondo operation.

Markey said BP has "consistently underestimated the flow rate" from the damaged well, and suggested that the company's idea of keeping the well shut in -- as opposed to hooking up riser lines to collect oil in surface vessels -- is a way to "evade billions of dollars in fines." Under the US Clean Water Act, companies are fined for oil spills on a per-barrel basis, with the penalty reaching $4,300 per barrel, per day, in cases involving "gross negligence."

A team of scientists established by the government recently estimated that the well was, prior to the capping last week, spewing between 35,000 to 60,000 b/d into the Gulf. An initial estimate of the spill shortly after the well blew out on April 20, pegged the flow at only 1,000 b/d. When the government raised the estimate to 5,000 b/d, BP officials concurred with that figure.

But, after BP released live video showing oil gushing out of the damaged riser pipe, Markey and many other officials sharply criticized the company for grossly underestimating the flow of oil.

In his letter Sunday, Markey asked Allen to explain in writing if he had signed off on BP's desire to keep the well shut in until it is killed with the relief well.

MARKEY QUESTIONS IF ANY OIL WOULD LEAK WITH RESUMPTION OF PRODUCTION

"If so, did you make that decision or concur in it?" Markey wrote.

If BP does keep the well shut in, Markey asked Allen to explain "how will you be able to determine with any precision the actual amount of oil that has been released from the well, so that the government can determine BP's potential legal liability for the environmental damage it has caused."

As of late Sunday afternoon, Allen had not announced the next steps for the well. Engineers are closely monitoring the pressure inside the well, and a drop in pressure would indicate that there is a leak in the wellbore beneath the seafloor.

On Saturday, Allen said the so-called "integrity test" would "eventually" be stopped, and the government then would order BP to hook up various riser pipes and other containment devices and send the oil to vessels on the surface. Suttles' comments Sunday morning about keeping the well shut in seemed to contradict that approach.

Allen said earlier Sunday that a 24-hour well integrity testing period would wrap mid-afternoon and that could be extended again. A BP spokesman said the company would not make any changes until directed to do so by the national incident commander.

Markey, for his part, said in his letter to Allen that producing the oil "might be the preferred approach, since it might eliminate the flow of additional oil and methane into the Gulf, and might also result in reduced pressure on the well."

Markey also asked Allen if hooking up the containment equipment and producing the oil would "necessarily require some release of oil and methane into the ocean," as BP has claimed.

"If so, how much? Markey asked.

Markey asked Allen to respond to his questions by mid-afternoon Monday.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked if it supported BP's suggestion of keeping the well shut in until it can be killed with the relief well.

--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com