Bad weather to cost Gulf crews 4 days

August 12, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS

Bad weather has delayed into early next week a massive effort to permanently kill BP’s blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico — a costly operation the government now says it is not certain how best to carry out.

Still, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the final “kill” of the well should be done early next week, if it’s done at all.

Allen, the government’s point man for the spill, said Wednesday that he hopes to turn over his high-profile job to someone else by late September or early October, another sign that the officials are beginning to scale back their response to one of the worst offshore oil spills in history.

He said he can leave when there is no chance that more oil will leak into the Gulf.

But Jefferson Parish Council Chairman John Young said Wednesday that it’s too early to start shifting from emergency response mode.

A temporary cap has kept oil from spewing for a month, and crews are finishing a relief well in preparation for the “bottom kill,” which involves pumping mud and cement from a well deep underground for a permanent seal.

The federal government and BP have recently raised the possibility that they won’t need to perform the operation at all, since the well was plugged last month with mud and cement pumped in through the top.