existing production lines out of the old blowout preventer them used the old top kill lines to produce oil while that top hat was sitting on it. now that they have the new stack on it, they have access to two more valves to allow them to produce the entire flow from the well. now, you ll recall that bp was actually compelled by admiral allen about two weeks ago, or about ten days ago, to go ahead with the cap. even though they kept saying that they were not ready. he wanted to get the cap on to get the flow contained. when they did that, they shifted gears. i think it caught everybody off guard by announcing this well integrity test, rather than hooking up the vessels to the well to produce. now, to be fair, they have two risers put in place and hooked up to these two producers. another riser is ready to hook up to the other. so i m not sure i m understanding why they have to flow oil into the well.
what we ve got is the stak cap has been put in place before we finish building out the infrastructure to support the four platform production. we re somewhat limited right now. but we have the cap in place and are finishing the infrastructure to take us to the 60,000 to 80,000 production capacity. joining us tonight, the former oil industry executive who now covers the industry at dailyhurricane doc. thanks for your time. do you elaborate on what admiral allen said about how those lines, those hose lines in effect that would be going down to the cap, might not be able to carry this kind of load. apparently getting this to the surface isn t as easy as some people might think. you know, lawrence, it is getting curiouser and curiouser the more i listen to both sides, either admiral allen or bp talking about this issue. this cap was designed to add two more production lines to the two
differ from the community incentives and government incentives in term of the choices on some of these options that face us at this point? or are we really at this stage of the game all in this together? they are completely juxtaposed to the interests of us. now remember, these waters belong to the united states. and these leases belong to the united states. and all this information is the property of us, you and me and the rest of the citizens of the u.s. in terms of our ownership. bp s interest is protecting its shareholders. the last thing they want is one, to measure the flow, the 100% of the flow to help us back calculate how much has polluted the gulf, and they don t want to have a video feed of that oil going back into the gulf for their public relations and their stock price. we as citizens and the government representing us, want this thing killed.
issues here. bp is not wanting to produce the well, for obvious reasons of being able to measure the flow, and the government, as am i, am worried about the integrity of the wellhead and further leaks around the well and in the wellhead itself. now, admiral allen is representing us, representing the government in this project with bp. he is not an oil man. 100 days ago, he probably knew absolutely, probably knew as much about this as i did. which is to say absolutely nothing. and so how do you imagine the dialogue going between experienced bp engineers and executives, using terminology, talking about technology they know about, they ve worked with, that allen has never been around. what is his ability to sift through the truth, the risk factors in the various choices, the various options in front of him? you know, i ve watched admiral allen develop over this last couple of months of him being in charge.
integrity test they ve been doing has really interfered with their ability to collect oil. and i think that s one of the issues here. bp is not wanting to produce the well, for obvious reasons of being able to measure the flow, and the government, as am i, am worried about the integrity of the wellhead and further leaks around the well and in the wellhead itself. now, admiral allen is representing us, representing the government in this project with bp. he is not an oil man. 100 days ago, he probably knew absolutely, probably knew as much about this as i did. which is to say absolutely nothing. and so how do you imagine the dialogue going between experienced bp engineers and executives, using terminology, talking about tek technology they ve worked with that allen has never been around. what is his bail to sift through the truth, the risk factors in the various choices, the various options in front of him. i ve watched admiral allen develop over this last couple of