Washington, 26 July (Argus) — BP will be in position to begin pumping mud into the top its Macondo well by the start of next week – a procedure dubbed the “static kill” – and can start drilling into the bottom of the Macondo well's outer casing five days after that, the US government said today.

In tandem, the static kill and relief well operations are expected to create a permanent plug of mud and cement in the Macondo well, which began spewing oil into the US Gulf of Mexico following the 20 April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and was not capped until 15 July.

Between today and 28 July, BP will prepare the first of two relief wells for installation of a final casing string after suspending work late last week in advance of tropical storm Bonnie, which dissipated this weekend and was less of a problem at the well site than initially expected, US national incident commander Thad Allen said today during a briefing for reporters.

Next, from 28 July to 1 August, BP will run the relief well's final 2,000ft of casing and cement it into place to ensure integrity of the well's last leg.

At that point, BP will be ready to begin pumping mud, cement and a mixture of other liquids into the top of the Macondo well through the “kill” line on the crippled well's blowout preventer stack, he said. BP will use the Q4000 vessel to conduct this operation after halting its use as an oil recovery facility following the activation of the sealing cap on 15 July.

Allen said the capping of the original well and the subsequent buildup of pressure – now up to 6,900psi – indicates the well is intact and should make the static kill more effective than the similar, failed “top kill” operation conducted in May. During that attempt, BP could not keep down the rising flow of oil as it pumped mud into the hole.

The well consists of two spaces that will be plugged – the outer ring of casing called the annulus and the inside of the drill pipe. The static kill will attempt to fill as much of the inner pipe as possible with material.

Around five days after this begins, BP will drill through the relief well into the bottom section of the original well's annulus and attempt to fill it full of mud and cement, according to Allen. Once the cement in the annulus dries, BP will drill through the cement and into the inner pipe to ascertain the effectiveness of the “static kill,” he said.

The cap will remain in place as these procedures take place, Allen said. “We're not going to declare any victory until this well is killed,” he said.

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