Gulf oil spill: Untried and untested – all hope now rests on 100-ton box to stem leak

A SHIP carrying a giant containment box has arrived at the site of the sunken rig where oil has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

Its arrival came as oil from the slick was washed ashore on an island off the Louisiana coast.

Rig operator BP said it hoped the 100-ton concrete and steel contraption would contain the oil and allow it to be siphoned off. The untried technique could collect as much as 85 per cent of the oil, which has been leaking from the seabed after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on 20 April, killing 11 workers.

There were reports last night of a pinkish oily substance washing up on the sands and marshlands of New Harbor Island, part of the Chandeleur barrier chain off Louisiana.

It is nesting time for gulls and pelicans on the island and environmentalists fear they may be taking contaminated food or oil on feathers to their young.

Numerous jellyfish have been washed up dead on its beaches.

The oil slick threatens Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and could eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, the worst in US history.

Robert Dudley, executive vice-president for the Americas and Asia at BP, said: "There is no doubt that this event will change the offshore industry forever, around the globe."

Mr Dudley said BP will now "consider the trade-offs" of off-shore exploration.

The crew of the BP registered Joe Griffin's were yesterday drilling a relief well to take the pressure off the blown-out well at the site, about 50 miles offshore. But this could take up to three months. Other possible solutions are being considered. However, it is likely to be Sunday or Monday before the containment box is fully operational and workers can establish whether it is working.

More than 200,000 gallons of oil a day is pouring from the well, creating a slick that has been floating on the Gulf for more than two weeks. Globules of oil are falling to the ocean floor, threatening the marine food chain.

Oil has been leaking in three places since the explosion. One small leak was capped on Wednesday. The containment box is being lowered over a much bigger leak in a pipe that is responsible for about 85 per cent of oil being discharged.

The rest of the oil is coming from the blowout preventer at the well – a heavy piece of machinery designed to stop such leaks – which failed in the explosion. Crews have been trying to shut it off using robotic devices, but that has not worked. The containment box has a dome-like structure at the top designed to act like a funnel and siphon the oil up through 5,000ft of pipe and on to a tanker at the surface.

Asked the odds of success, Bob Fryar, a senior executive vice-president for BP's Deep Water Angola, said: "This has never been done before. Typically, you would put odds on something that has been done before."

A 20ft pleasure boat that invaded the perimeter thrown around the site yesterday pulled up in the middle of the oil spill near the boat drilling the relief well and was told to leave.

A wider exclusion zone is now in place.