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Oil gushing at spill site after vent damaged
Cap removed after sub hits vent; 2 cleanup workers die in separate events
Live video NEW ORLEANS - Oil was again gushing from the BP spill site on Wednesday after the company was forced to remove the containment cap when a robotic submarine hit a vent. The news came as officials also reported two deaths of people who had been hired for the response effort.
BP hoped to reinstall the cap later Wednesday after fixing the vent and checking for safety.
When the robot bumped the system, gas rose through the vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming in the cap, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.
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The cap was removed and crews were checking to see if crystals had formed before putting it back on. Allen did not say how long that might take.
"There's more coming up than there had been, but it's not a totally unconstrained discharge," Allen said.
In the meantime, a different system was still burning oil on the surface.
Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in the previous 24 hours. Another 438,000 gallons was burned.
The current worst-case estimate of what's spewing into the Gulf is about 2.5 million gallons a day. Anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons have spilled since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. BP PLC was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.
Gunshot death reported
The deaths reported Wednesday were not tied to the containment operation. The Coast Guard said the workers had been involved in cleanup operations but that their deaths did not appear to be work related.
One death was a boat captain who died of a gunshot wound, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Further details were not immediately available.
Earlier Wednesday, BP said that Bob Dudley was appointed to head the new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, which is in charge of cleaning up the oil spill. BP said that the appointment was effective immediately.
Dudley, who had been in charge of BP's operations in the Americas and Asia, will report to Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward.
"We were always going to set up the organization," he said on NBC's TODAY show. "But we have across the Gulf Coast people that are there temporarily, rotating in and out. We are going to bed this down now — we're in there for the long haul and we're going to make sure we're sustained and efficient in working with the Coast Guard to shut off the well and through the spill response and clean up."
June 23: Bob Dudley, BP’s managing director and newly appointed overseer of its spill response team, says BP remains committed to helping victims of the spill.
He also was asked if BP would start deepwater drilling again in the Gulf after a judge lifted a White House moratorium.
He replied that BP will "step back" from the issue while the April 20 rig explosion is investigated. "That process is going to take awhile," he added.
BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf.
New drilling ban order
On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium on deepwater drilling after a federal judge struck down the existing one.
Salazar said in a statement that the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause was necessary in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. The judge in New Orleans who struck down the moratorium earlier in the day complained there wasn't enough justification for it.
Salazar pointed to indications of inadequate industry safety precautions on deepwater wells. "Based on this ever-growing evidence, I will issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."
The White House, which had hoped the ban would provide time to ensure other wells are operating safely, immediately said it would appeal.
The judge's ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by drilling companies to reverse the ban imposed by the Department of Interior, which halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.
The federal judge in Louisiana granted the drillers' request for a preliminary restraining order that would prevent the ban from taking effect until a trial is held. He did not set a trial date.
District Judge Martin Feldman said the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning and that the moratorium seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs countered that "continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and ... potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now."
Salazar said in his late Tuesday statement imposing a moratorium "was and is the right decision."
"We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," Salazar said. "That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico."
