i m lynn berry and here s what s happening. bp says the so-called static kill is going smoothly so far. they are hoping to create a permanent plug thnchths u.s. is imposing sanks on a hand full of senior iranian officials accusing them of providing direct support to the taliban. a senate panel has delayed a vote on a nuclear arms reduction treaty with russia saying they need more time to build bipartisan consensus. a delivery driver facing dismissal for stealing wept on at shooing rampage in connecticut on tuesday. killing the co-workers before turning the gun on himself. saudi arabia will shut down blackberry service on friday. and legendary minnesota vikings quarterback brett favre t texted teammates that he plans to retire. his third retirement from the
sitting, circulating, doing nothing, waiting on this static kill that s going on now. had they just kept going, i think they could have already had the well killed instead of doing all this nonsense from the top. and the prospects, as you said, it s going to be a while before we have any idea if the static kill has worked. what is the definition of success and how is it to be determined? well, the way kent wells described it in his very brief briefing today was that they think it s successful if there s zero pressure on the well. and that s the classic definition for a killed well, is one where you have zero pressure showing on the wellhead. of course, here, since it s in 5,000 feet of water, there s going to be hydrostatic pressure, but that pressure on the very top of the well should read zero. but having said that, you don t know if that well s actually killed down below, because all the damage down below, it could be flowing into another zone. it could be flowing someplace else
a tropical storm, which nobody could help, but now we re sitting, circulating, doing nothing, waiting on this static kill that s going on now. had they just kept going, i think they could have already had the well killed instead of doing all this nonsense from the top. and the prospects, as you said, it s going to be a while before we have any idea if the static kill has worked. what is the definition of success and how is it to be determined? well, the way kent wells described it in his very brief briefing today was that they think it s successful if there s zero pressure on the well. and that s the classic definition for a killed well, is one where you have zero pressure showing on the wellhead. of course, here, since it s in 5,000 feet of water, there s going to be hydrostatic pressure, but that pressure on the very top of the well should read zero. but having said that, you don t know if that well s actually killed down below, because all the damage down below, it could be flow
different points. the yet to be finished relief wells will be used to execute a shof called bottom kill. more mud and cement will be injected into bedrock 2 1/2 miles below the sea floor. this as new estimates are out at the bp price tag. the company could be fined as much as $21 billion if it is confined to commit gross negligence or willful misconduct. the fine could drop to $17.6 billion if the government credits the company for the oil it has already recovered. joining us once again tonight, former oil executive, bob cavnar, who writes about the industry at dailyhurricane.com. he s also author of disaster on the horizon, which is due out in october. good evening, bob. hi, keith. static kill. where did this one come from? have we heard of this before? it gets confusing sometimes. well, that s the latest part of the most recent shape shift of bp. when admiral al will know compelled bp to go ahead with the capping stack. you ll remember that they came up with this well integri
that people along the gulf suffered, for example, tourism, when tourists didn t come because they thought there was oil on the beaches. as ann said by the way, i want to compliment ann. she has been spot-on the whole time in her analysis of all of this. but we re going to be suffering for a long time. thank you for that. ann is too modest to acknowledge but we are all incredibly proud of what ann and her team has been doing down there. right now robert gibbs is coming to the podium, so we ll go to the briefing. ann, if you can give us the schedule as far as you know, on what s going to happen with static kill and relief well, which is the real deal. they have a big decision to make with static kill, andrea, whether or not they are going to pump cement down on top of the mud. that s what they are trying to decide today. the relief well should resume