preventers as early as sunday. today, the effort was postponed until possibly monday or tuesday because workers need to clean out debris they found in one of the relief wells being drilled. the debris is preventing a final section of pipe casing from being installed. that casing is essential for reinforcing the relief well and keeping it secure during the static kill. tom foreman has more for us tonight. tom? hey, randi. what they want to do is make sure that relief well is ready in case the static kill doesn t work. let s explain the static kill first. they ll pump fluid down into that blow-out preventer we ve heard so much about. this is like that top kill they tried before, down into the line. this fluid is much heavier than the oil and, in theory, it will exert downward pressure on the oil and ultimately stop it. they can do this because with that cap on top, the oil is now at a more constant pressure instead of fluctuating with bursts of gas, bursts of oil that give them a hard
it had hoped to start a static kill, pumping mud and cement from above into the blow-out preventers as early as sunday. today, the effort was postponed until possibly monday or tuesday because workers need to clean out debris they found in one of the relief wells being drilled. the debris is preventing a final section of pipe casing from being installed. that casing is essential for reinforcing the relief well and keeping it secure during the static kill. tom foreman has more for us tonight. tom? hey, randi. what they want to do is make sure that relief well is ready in case the static kill doesn t work. let s explain the static kill first. they ll pump fluid down into that blow-out preventer we ve heard so much about. this is like that top kill they tried before, down into the line. this fluid is much heavier than the oil and, in theory, it will exert downward pressure on the oil and ultimately stop it. they can do this because with that cap on top, the oil is now at a more constant
on to the mlrp package down there at the bottom of the gulf. we ll get in touch with bp later this morning when they get into the office to get confirmation of that. they used 67 steel joints to make that line a mile through the ocean. once that happens they re going to pull the plug that they put in temporarily for the storm, then run in some conditioning fluid to make sure the integrity is okay and kind of flush things out, then they ll start running that liner again and eventually seal it with cement. that whole process, granted, takes five to seven days so as far as a timetable for when they would try to static kill, we re still looking at the beginning of next week. so as you mentioned, the entire timetable to get this thing all seth said and done has been delayed about a week. that still puts us into at least the middle of august. they want to try the static kill first, then go after an intersection with the relief and
a substantial minority oppose it vocally. talk to the controversial sheriff, joe arpaio at the center of the battle. first, randi kaye has the latest. reporter: anderson, bp s plan to permanently seal its ruptured well has hit a snag. it had hoped to start a static kill, pumping mud and cement from above into the blow-out preventers as early as sunday. today, the effort was postponed until possibly monday or tuesday because workers need to clean out debris they found in one of the relief wells being drilled. the debris is preventing a final section of pipe casing from being installed. that casing is essential for reinforce i reinforcing the relief well and keeping it secure during the static kill. tom foreman has more for us tonight. tom? hey, randi. what they want to do is make sure that relief well is ready in case the static kill doesn t work. let s explain the static kill first. they ll pump fluid down into that blow-out preventer we ve heard so much about. this is like that to