CNN 2010-06-05

Oil spill, Day 42 of this oil spill in the Gulf 1 of Mexico. Still there is no end in sight for this crisis.

Right now take a look with me. Work under water and under way to place a custom built dome 2 over that ruptured 3 well. Remember that effort top kill we've been keeping our eye on for the last couple of days, well, that effort to plug the leak now under way as we learn over the weekend that the top kill has failed.

It could be several more days before we know definitively 5 if this new capping method will work. And even it does -- listen to this. Even if it does, BP will only be able to collect, they say, most -- not all -- of the oil that is gushing 6 out.

Now BP has long conceded that the only permanent solution is to drill a relief well that will choke off the flow. But that work cannot be completed before August.

Want to get a closer look now as to that effort underway. Placing this dome, this custom-fit cap as what they're saying over that leaking well, and CNN's Josh Levs is here with some great animation 7 to help kind of walk us through this LMRP cap, right, Josh?

Yes, it's the latest step in the complicated lexicon 8 of this crisis. And in order to understand what BP is doing next, we've got some pictures to help you.

I want to go first to this video. It's an animation because when you look at the animation, it gives you the basic idea here. You're looking at a section of the blowout preventer. That's the lower marine 9 riser. And it's the lower marine rise package, you need to cap it off, right?

And we watch what happens in this picture. You have all this oil gushing out. And they're creating a cap that's going to come on, they hope, and be able to be placed right on top of it.

Now looked well and good, it looks pretty. Here's the problem. It doesn't look like that right now. There isn't a little stub that you can just put a cap on top of. And that's where we're going to come to these images right here. We can close in. These are images that come from BP.

And what needs to happen, this right here is the blowout preventer. And what you have right here is basically this pipe, it was originally going up now as part of -- the whole falling apart. The explosion, it's over like this.

What you need to have are these little tiny remote-operated vehicles. Make it cut. So let's zoom 10 way in here. I want you to see what this is going to look like. You have these little remote- operated vehicles and they're going to make a cut right along there. Now that's the first one. These are little hydraulic 11 shears 12 will have to make a cut.

Then come over here with me. Then you have this other remote-operated vehicles, this one has a diamond wire cutters. It's going to have to make a second cut in order to get rid of all of that.

And then, if all that works as they want it to, then you get this. I want to make it nice and big. Then what you will get ultimately is a stub right here and then a cap that can come down and plug it up.

But think about what I just showed you. We're basically talking about underwater surgery at this point. We're talking about the complicated task of going 5,000 feet under water, removing incredibly specifically exactly what you need to so that the cap can even fit on top of that stub.

With that in mind, let's go back to the animation. I want you to see it again. Because now what you're going to notice when you look at the animation BP is providing is that at the beginning of all of this, you're looking at that lower marine riser package. Then you come up and you see these two pieces disappear.

So this is the initial problem, the initial challenge that's so hard. And in the process of doing that, BP is saying that it's going to increase the amount of oil that's flowing out. They're saying 20 percent more will flow out in that time. We'll see how that works.

So that right there is the challenge that we're dealing 13 with at this point, Brooke. It's putting that cap on top of the lower marine riser package.

There's one more thing to know about it. As it's there, it's also not only going to be directly that oil, it's also going to be pumping in something called methanol. And the reason is what went wrong in the past.

Let's go back to that containment 14 dome. A few weeks ago, you all probably are having déjà vu right now. You're saying didn't they try to put a dome on top of this already? Well, they did several weeks ago. They put that containment dome. They tried. And what happened was, water got in and mixed with the gas and then created these ice-like hydrate crystals.

So it never worked out. So this new cap that they're putting on in addition to guiding out the oil is supposed to also guide in some methanol to prevent crystals from forming. So basically what you hear when I talk to you about all this, a whole lot of variables, a whole of questions.

They say it could be four to seven days before they can really begin the process of doing this. Then lots of fingers crossed to see if that cap works out. And even if it does, it's not a 100 percent seal. It's hoping -- as Brooke was just saying, it's hoping to get most of the oil contained. Then they're still the larger challenges in the future.

So, Brooke, that's where we are right now, this massive underwater surgery that's going to be taking place 5,000 feet under to try to get that lower marine riser cap to control the oil at last.

Right. And as you've said, they're saying maybe 20 percent extra flow, you know, of the oil once they cut that riser. That's a whole other variable. We are hoping it works but really it seems like August with those relief wells. The final perhaps definitive 4 closure to all of this.

And let's hope that we can get the wells up by August.

Let's hope we can.

This is what they're saying. Yes. Fingers crossed on that one, too.

All right, Josh Levs, great explainer.