strategy which was by the middle to the end of july to go to four production platforms and that will be producing at that point out of both kill-and-choke lines from both preventers. the legacy ones on the bottom and the new ones on the top to go to four production platforms. that s what gets us to 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day which is in excess of our flow rate projections which are 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day with built-in redundancy in case one of the four went down we could keep operating and handle the flow rate in terms of being able to produce it and the capacity that we need moving forward. this last-minute evaluation was due to an over abundance of caution led by our technical team, secretary chu, his folks, other members of industry and the academic community. we sat long and hard about delaying this test. this was not easy. there are significant perceptions created around the country. i have my own perceptions of how we d like to move forward on
this period of time where the oil, as has been described, is just gushing out unabated. do we have any accurate assessment of just how much we are talking about in terms of barrels or gallons going into the ocean as you wait for this containment cap operation to be completed? well, kiran, the government estimate s always been between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day. we have been producing with the various devices that have been on the well before the last cap was removed somewhere around 25,000 barrels a day. we have continued to flare off about 8,000 barrels a day and the helix producer will be coming online. we will have the capability to continue to produce but during the period when we actually try to do the well integrity test we will slowly take those producti production platforms offline because we have to close all the valves. admiral allen, thank you so much. good luck today with all the efforts to cap that well.
institutional, political and also from a financial point of view, we had to create some kind of mechanism, and we have done it. rescuing the greek economy is going to cost europe almost a trillion dollars, but european leaders decided the cost was worth it to prevent greece from disrupting the rest of the world s economic recovery. well, former vice president dick cheney remains hospitalized for a second night, mr. cheney undergoing tests after saying he didn t feel well yesterday. he s had five heart attacks in the last 30 years. so far, though, no official explanation of the former vice president s illness. cheney is 69. he s expected to be at the george washington university hospital through the weekend. tropical storm alex slamming into mexico right now. and hundreds of workers in the gulf are evacuating ahead of it. but not those working on the oil spill cleanup. bp is removing some employees from three rigs in the far south of the gulf and shell oil is pulling about 300 emp
institutional, political and also from a financial point of view, we had to create some kind of mechanism and you have done it. rescuing the greek economy is going to cost europe almost a trillion dollars, but european leaders decided the cost was worth it to prevent greece from disrupting the rest of the world s economic recovery. well, former vice president dick cheney remains hospitalized undergoing tests after saying he didn t feel well yesterday. he said has had five heart attacks in the last 30 years. so far no official explanation of the form he vice president s illness. he is 69 and expected to be at the george washington university hospital through the weekend. tropical storm alex slamming into mexico right now. and hundreds of workers in the gulf are evacuating ahead of it. not those working on the oil political cleanup. bp is removing some employees from three rigs in the far south of the gulf and shell oil is pulling about 300 employees off production platforms and ri
hole they ve drilled and the drilling platform goes away. then a whole new platform, a whole different platform actually comes in, uncorks the hole and gets the oil out of the well. two different types of rigs. two different processes. there s drilling and then there s production. drilling done with a drilling rig, production done with a production rig. the production platform pumps the oil back to shore through all of the green pipe lines you see there on the map. those are the green lines. again, drilling and production platforms, two different things. this is sort of oil industry 101. this drilling versus production distinction is at the very heart of a very ugly and very stupid fight going on right now. as we speak, the obama administration is trying to temporarily ban deepwater offshore oil drilling in the gulf of mexico. today for a second time this week, a louisiana federal judge