loss of 5,000 barrels a day? how do you cap it off? we re trying to a couple of things, chris. first of all, when the incident occurred and the mobile drilling unit sunk, there should have been an act wags of a blow-out preventer. it s a valve this shuts, that obviously did not close or it only closed partially. the challenge is to try to stop the leak around that. they ll have to drill a relief well to stop the pressure. and in the meantime we re trying to deal with the leakage around the riser pipe. we re trying with remotely-operated vehicles to try to fix the blow-out preventer. bp is also engineering coffer dam, domes that go over the leakage. there s some difficulties engineering that in because of the depths of water they re operating at. it s unprecedented doing this type of work at that depth. first of all, what are the odds of having equipment that s able to fix the blow-out preventer right now? is it feasible that you could fix that and stop the leak?
meeting with five governors last night, the navy is involved. obviously, b.p. can t handle it. i understand they re designing and building a large boxlike structure that could be lowered right over where the leak is rising. and with a 5,000 foot long pipe down there, connected to the rig that would allow that oil to flow somewhere else besides through the waters, is that correct? yes. they call that a dome or a coffer dam that would encapsulate the area where there are three leaks and then as you described, that would pull it up to the surface through a pipe that could then be piped into a recovery barge so we would prevent that product from getting into the water and be able to take it safely to shore for disposal. parallel to that, there are other efforts that are ongoing. the primary fix, the long-term fix is a relief well, drilling has started. that will then enable capping
minerals management service on the floor of the ocean and coast guard has equities at the top and we re all committed as far as recovering the oil. how do you get down a mile deep into the gulf of mexico and stop that loss of 5,000 barrels a day? how do you cap it off? we re trying to a couple of things, chris. first of all, when the incident occurred and the mobile drilling unit sunk, there should have been an actuation of a blowout preventer. it s a valve that automatically shuts. that obviously did not close or it only closed partially. the challenge is to try to stop the leak around that. they ll have to drill a relief well to relieve the pressure and cap that. and in the meantime we re trying to deal with the leakage around the riser pipe. we re trying with remotely-operated vehicles to fix that blowout preventer and see if we can actuate it. bp is also engineering coffer dam, domes that go over the leakage. there s some difficulties engineering that because of the depth of th
underwater video showing the leak. the company says it spent $450 million responding to the massive spill. and now bp is ready to try its next attempt to plug up that leak. this with a two-ton containment dome called a top hat. it s made its way to the sea floor, and it s being positioned to sit on top of that leak. well, nbc s tom trong joins us live from dauphin island, alabama. tom, can you explain to us what this smaller dome is? this is really a plan b, right? reporter: it certainly is, lynn. the top hat s going to be a smaller, concentrated dome. the first dome failed because it was a large coffer dam. once it was over the leak point, once it was over there, it was foaming up. what was happening was, because of the methane gas, also the ice crystals forming, it was pushing that dam up towards the surface. this smaller top hat now is going to have a tube running down into it.