[Guest post by DRJ]

Using robots controlled by joysticks, workers are within 200 feet of positioning a 100-ton container over an oil leak at the Deepwater Horizon wellsite:

“A spokesman for oil giant BP PLC, which is in charge of the cleanup, said the box was suspended about 200 feet above the main leak Friday and was being moved into position, though it could be Saturday before that happens.

Several undersea cameras attached to the robots were making sure it was properly aligned before it plunged all the way to the bottom.

“We are essentially taking a four-story building and lowering it 5,000 feet and setting it on the head of a pin,” Bill Salvin, the BP spokesman, told The Associated Press.

If the device works, it could be collecting as much as 85 percent of the oil spewing into the Gulf and funneling it up to a tanker by Sunday. It’s never been tried so far below the surface, where the water pressure is enough to crush a submarine.”

They estimate the well is producing 200,000 gallons a day. If all goes as planned, the oil should rise through the container and into a steel pipe. At that point, I assume it will be sent to a separator and deposited into a storage tank or tanker. Reports indicate the procedure has gone smoothly but it hasn’t been easy:

“Out at sea, the crew of the semi-submersible drilling vessel Helix Q4000 waited hours longer than expected to hoist the containment device from the deck of the Joe Griffin supply boat because dangerous fumes rose from the oily water. Joe Griffin Capt. Demi Shaffer told an Associated Press reporter aboard his boat the fear was that a spark caused by the scrape of metal on metal could cause a fire. Crew members wore respirators while they worked.”

The conditions for the workers on the relief well must be the same. Imagine working with massive, dangerous equipment in fumes that require respirators and on a slick surface coated with inches of combustible oil. I don’t know if this will work but I’m impressed with the engineering skills and the fortitude of the people involved.

— DRJ