| 02 August 2010

Photo: US Coast Guard, public domain. The End of the Beginning? The cap has held for 18 days, and now BP's technicians and engineers are doing tests to figure out if they'll be able to start pumping heavy drilling mud, and possibly cement, into the oil well. This would be the first step - called the 'static kill' - which would be followed 5 to 7 days later by the 'bottom kill', which is the injection of more mud and cement via a relief well. If these two things work, the well will be permanently sealed and that particular nightmare will finally be over (but there will be a lot left to do).... Read the full story on TreeHugger