BP’s costs for oil spill reach $2.65 billion

June 29, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS

Tropical Storm Alex steamed across the Gulf of Mexico on Monday on a path that could keep it away from BP’s busted well but could still stir up heavy winds, rain and choppy seas that drive the oil deeper inland and bring much of the cleanup to a standstill.

By midweek, boats skimming the sludge from the water may have to return to port for their own safety, and the floating oil-containment booms could be rendered useless by waves slopping over them and may have to be pulled out of the water.

The upside is that the storm could stay far enough away that BP will not have to abandon its efforts to capture much of the crude spewing from the sea floor. Nor is the storm expected to interrupt BP’s drilling of a relief well, considered the best hope of plugging the leak.

“We are watching very, very closely,” said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man on the crisis. “As it stands right now, absent the intervention of a hurricane, we’re still looking at mid-August” for completing the relief well. Earlier Monday, a BP executive said the well would be done by early August.

Still, Alex — expected to reach hurricane force by the time it hits land near the Mexico-Texas border, possibly Thursday — is giving new urgency to BP’s efforts to make its operations at the well as hurricane-resistant as possible.

The company said it hopes to install a new oil-capturing system by next week that would allow BP to disconnect the equipment faster if a hurricane threatens and hook it back up quickly after the storm passes. Right now, BP would need five days to pull out if there is a hurricane. The new system being developed, which uses a flexible hose, would cut that to two days. And if there was a hurricane, it could shut down the drilling operation for up to two weeks, Allen said.

The containment system now in place is capturing nearly 1 million gallons per day from the well, which is spewing as much as 2.5 million gallons a day.