Gulf Oil Spill Is Finally Capped - For Now!

For the first time in 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes there is no oil gushing out into the gulf from the catastrophic explosion that caused an underwater well to rupture, on that fateful day on April 20, 2010

BP, the company that owns the rig, reported this morning that their latest attempt to cap the oil well had been completely successful - However, it is too early to celebrate.

For the next 48 hours, engineers will monitor the oil pressure from the well carefully - if it remains high that is good news, because it means that this is the only leak. If however, the pressures starts to wane, it indicates that the oil has found another way to escape via other leaks.

For now, the oil is going to be allowed to collect in the 150,000 lbs containment cap - If all goes well, BP will start drawing it up to the four ships stationed above.

Meanwhile, rapid progress is also being made on the two relief wells that are under construction to provide the permanent solution to the ruptured well.

Let's all hope that this latest effort - the company's eighth in trying to cap the flow of oil, will be successful! Once that stops, the experts can turn to the other, bigger problem that will most likely haunt us for decades - How to effectively clean up the estimated 90-180 million gallons of oil that is polluting the oceans and jeopardizing our wildlife and the livelihoods of thousands of fisherman.

sources:christiansciencemonitor.com,huffingtonpost.com