Allen dismisses speculation about early well plug. McClatchy (7/9, Seibel), in an article titled, “Thad Allen Scoffs At Idea That BP Will Finish Relief Well Early,” reports Allen “dumped cold water on suggestions that BP might be able to plug the well in time for its July 27 announcement of second quarter earnings. Speaking by conference call to reporters from Theodore, Ala., Allen said he thinks that a mid-August date is still the most realistic for a relief well to have intercepted the runaway well and killed it by filling it with heavy drilling mud and concrete.” Allen is quoted as saying, “I’ve been around these folks for long enough to know that you need to under-promise and over deliver.”
The Washington Post (7/9, Kaufman, Achenbach) also reports Allen “pointedly stuck to the official government estimate that the leak will be plugged by mid-August. If the effort succeeded earlier, Allen said, ‘we’d all jump for joy.’ … With so many imponderables, he said, predicting a July finish seemed overly optimistic.”
According to the CBS Evening News (7/8, story 4, 3:00, Couric), “BP has said for weeks now come mid-August those relief wells will be done,” but “now it’s actually talking about an earlier finish” and that “is actually making some people angrier.” CBS noted “one theory why BP is now hinting at an earlier finish,” is “July 27 date is also when BP reports second-quarter earnings to nervous shareholders,” and “for every leaked barrel, BP faces potential fines of $4,300. At 60,000 barrels — the current estimate — that’s $258 million a day. Finish by July 27 rather than August 15, that’s a potential savings of almost $5 billion.”