the new well cap has been under way for three hours. there s still lots of risk and uncertainty as this test moves forward. we re keeping a very close watch on the live cameras beneath the surface. let s go to cnn s ed lavandera. first, he s in new orleans to tell our viewers what is happening right now. ed? reporter: well, wolf, i really think the news of this moment is just the visual aspect of this. for almost three months we ve seen oil gushing into the gulf of mexico, and even though it s very likely a temporary moment here to be able to see pictures coming from 5,000 feet below the surface of the gulf of mexico and no oil spewing out of that runaway well, it is quite a sight to see, but a lot of cautionary tones being struck at this moment, not only from federal officials but bp officials as well. they say right now we are in the first six-hour window of the integrity test that is being done. experts, dozens of them, scientists monitoring the pressure readings coming to them
it may take decades to clean up this disaster and to clean up the disaster in the gulf of mexico so that part of the story will continue, but us a poias y out, there s no guarantee that the test is going to lead to success. it s a very critical several hours now, ed. reporter: right now. can i give you a little bit of a time frame here. we re right about halfway through the first six-hour window. the best way to kind of think about this, wolf, is break up the next 48 hours into six-hour blocks, and after each of those blocks all of the experts will huddle back together, compare notes and kind of see where they stand. so worst case scenario, this could be shut down after the first six hours if the pressure readings come back and the pressure readings are too low which would tell them that there s a leak somewhere, and they want that oil coming out top so they can better control it, but the longer they can sustain this, and this is really a question of how long this containment cap can
completely, there s a pressure further down the hose, you can cause a leak. so what we re trying to do now is get physical evidence because we don t know the condition of the wellbore, and the way you do that is metaphorically put your thumb on the garden hose, and it s called a capping stack. we are closing it down slowly and do pressure readings. if we get very low pressure readings, it would be the live lent of putting your thumb over the garden hose and the water s going someplace else because there s no pressure. high pressure readings gives us some indication that the wellbore is intact, and then that all relates to how much mud and the procedures that will be needed and how they re going to kill the well down below. is that more descriptive. has the relief well drilling entirely stopped and how far away is it dd-3, from the actual
that s why we need to learn about the well integrity test. it will give us options, whether or not we can shut the well in or create a more effective containment system with four production platforms off the new cap to allow us to shield the environment from a massive discharge of oil thus far but the ability of that well to hold pressure, whether it s low or high is very, very instructive on how we re going to penetrate the well, the amount of mud, and weight of the mud which can vary and how they need to plug that with cement. i don t think there s so much an impact back on the relief well that s being drilled as much as we can inform the way we re going to conduct the kill itself because we ll have empirical pressure readings and understand to a greater certainty the pressure of the wellbore. she may want to follow up on that. it didn t look like i was responsive from your nonverbals. i understand it. right.
we re hooufing forward now it looks like. but still, they haven t been so clear about a time line, but they re telling us about how they re going to test it in intervals. we could know between six and 48 hours. walk us through that process. they re going to be quite careful in how they do this. they know what s on the line and they do not want to mess this up. right. i mean, it s a 8-hour test. they re going to stop and take measurements and analyze the data that they get every six hours . so if things go completely haywire out of the gate, they could shut this down after six hours if they need to. but those pressure readings is what they ll be looking at closely to make sure they re not doing any more damage to that well bore that goes into the earth surface and deep, almost three miles deep into the earth. so that s what they re concerned about. that s what they ll be monitoring closely. we ve been hearing so much about integrity tests and pressure. but once again, explain low