the reservoir. rob marciano is live for us in orange beach, alabama this morning. how quickly might they decide whether or not this is the way to go and does it pose any risk, rob, because there are concerns about the integrity of the well and if they start pumping down that heavy mud while the top of the well is capped, could they increase the pressure such that they might actually damage it more? reporter: well, that would be the commonsense line of thinking, john. i think you are right about that, and that s probably why they haven t pulled the trigger right away. 24-hour test, then another 24-hour test until they get basically gain more confidence that that well has kept its integrity, without going to leak now for the past five days. the pressure readings, as you remember when they first capped this thing, they anticipated pressure readings to go to 8,000, maybe 9,000 pounds per square inch. right now we re at about 6,800
man in charge of the government s response, thad allen. allen called for the seepage minor four days after bp halted the leak with a new cap. take a listen. the small seepages we are finding right now do not present, at this point, any indication that there s a threat to the well bore. we think that was going to happen, we would take immediate action. having said that, if there is any indication of a precipitous drop in pressure or any reason why we night need to do something about it we would need to have to vent immediately to relieve the pressure on the well and move to longer term containment. david mattingly is joining us from new orleans. david, why does admiral allen think that the seepage, think that these pressure readings and the leaks are not a problem? reporter: well, that primary area of seepage that they ve been talking about is about two miles or so away from the well itself. they don t believe it is
quickly as we can. so bob, just to clarify, are you saying that if we were getting some flow measurements now we could actually retrocalculate with some of that what the flow has been in the past? absolutely. and the flow in the past is the one that s the most expensive calculation for bp long term. that s exactly right. they have pressure readings from this wellhead from the very beginning, lawrence, that they have not disclosed to us except for a few spot readings here and there. now we have this pressure build-up curve. if we were flowing oil into the gulf, we could pretty much calculate how much oil and gas they flowed since april 20th. so let s look at where we are now. 6,800 pounds per square inch pressure, it s rising. that s a good sign, everyone seems to agree. where do you think we are now? what are the possibilities in front of us? and are there still some doomsday scenarios in what you see coming? the build-up they re doing
so we should be focusing on lowering the rick as much as we can, and getting the well killed with these relief wells as quickly as we can. just to clarify, are you saying if we were getting some flow measurements now, we could actually retro calculate with some of that what the flow has been in the past. absolutely. and the flow in the past is the one that s the most expensive calculation for bp long term. that s exactly right. they have pressure readings from this wellhead from the very beginning that they have not disclosed to us, except for a few spot readings here and there. now we have this pressure build-up curve. if we were flowing oil into the gulf, we could pretty much calculate how much oil and gas they flowed since april 20th. so let s look at where we are now. 6,800 pounds per square inch pressure, it is rising, that s a good sign. everyone seems to agree. where do you think we are now? what are the possibilities in front of us? and are there still some
i m sure we will ask him questions about that. the cap seeping, as well as oil and gas seeping from the ocean floor. the scientists believe the seepage from the ocean floor may be a natural occurrence, right? right, right. it s about two miles away from the broken well head and it s happening all over the gulf of mexico where you have seepage like this. this is one of the events that is a natural occurrence. there are a couple bubbles seen every now and then bubbling out of the bottom of that cap. that s kind of disturbing. they re watching the pressure readings, but they continue to be stable and rising. the good news is, tamron, for the sixth day in a row people along the gulf coast are waking up to the news that no oil is gushing into the gulf of mexico, like it had been, for the last 80 days or so. by inouythe way, this is the th month anniversary of the bp explosion which killed 11 workers three months ago tonight. charles hadlock for us live in venice, louisiana.