Feds: Relief drilling needed to kill BP’s well

BP’s blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is not yet plugged for good, and work on what’s been touted as the permanent solution will need to continue, the federal government says. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the spill response, says crews must move forward drilling the relief well, even though officials were still working out the best way to finish it. “The relief well will be finished,” he says. “We will kill the well.” BP had thought the mud and cement pumped in from above the leak might have essentially killed the well. But the relief well will allow engineers to pump in mud and cement from below, which is intended to permanently seal the well. Work on the relief well and a second backup well was stopped this week because of bad weather. The decision to proceed with the so-called “bottom kill” operation means a key milestone in the crisis that wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast’s economy and ecosystem remains days off. However, Allen has repeatedly insisted on an “overabundance of caution” when it comes to permanently plugging the well.