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Static Kill Under Way

By Eileen Fleming

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wwno/local-wwno-916451.mp3

New Orleans, La. – BP Vice President Kent Wells says testing shows the well is stable enough to withstand the pressure required to push oil back into the reservoir.

"The injectivity test was textbook. It went exactly as we would have expected. We pumped at several different rates."

Even if it works, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says it's not the end of the process to kill the well.

"Filling that with mud and then filling that with cement is the only solution to the end of this. And there should be no ambiguity about that. I'm the National Incident Commander and that's the way this will end. It will end with the relief wells being drilled."

A relief well is expected to permanently plug the well later this month.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans

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