BP, U.S. government to decide well kill plan soon

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP <:BP.LO:>Plc and government scientists should decide in the next day or two how to go about killing the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well, the top official overseeing the spill response said on Monday.

"There's nobody that wants to have this happen quicker than I do, but there's nobody who wants to incur more risk in this operation," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told reporters at a briefing.

"When we finish this thing, we need to have a stake in the heart of this well," he said.

The relief well is about 50 feet (15 metres) from its target more than two miles beneath the seabed, Allen said.

He said BP engineers and government scientists are concerned that cement poured into the well from the top earlier this month squeezed back up into the space between the well pipe and the surrounding rock layers, trapping as much as 1,000 barrels of oil.

"We took a step to minimize risk in relation to a discharge during hurricane season and we're just dealing with the implications of that," he said.

Allen said officials are assessing whether injecting heavy drilling mud and cement into the Macondo well through the relief well will hike pressure and force oil up.

That could mean another leak into the sea or damage the failed blowout preventer that is key to finding the cause of the April 20 blowout, he said.

Allen said officials may build a pressure venting system to install on seabed equipment before the relief well is finished, which could take a week.

Or BP may swap the failed blowout preventer for another, which would take less time, he said.

Once drilling resumes, Allen said it could take up to a week to intercept, inject cement, let it dry, conduct tests and declare the Macondo well dead.

(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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