Giant Containment Chamber to Collect Leaking Gulf Oil

Workers have started to lower a massive containment chamber over the wrecked wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in a risky effort to collect the gushing crude.

The concrete-and-steel chamber is designed to collect 85 percent of the spilled oil and funnel it up to a tanker, the Associated Press reported, and it would take hours for the 100-ton box to reach the seabed, after which a pipe will connect the top of the box to the tanker.
The whole structure could be operating by Sunday, Press TV reported.

With oil leaking at 5000 feet under the sea where the water pressure can crush a submarine, this is the first time that this technology is used at such extreme depths.

"We haven't done this before. It's very complex and we can't guarantee it," British Petroleum spokesman David Nicholas warned earlier.

The box must be accurately placed over the well, or it could further damage the leaking pipe.

In order to reduce the risk of ice clogs forming in the pipes, warm water and methanol will be pumped during the whole operation. Also precautions are made to avoid any chance of explosions when separating the oil, gas and water mixture after the mix is brought up to the surface.

Another box will be built to deal with a smaller leak from the sea floor if the operation is successful.

The US Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded on April 20, sinking into the Gulf of Mexico and killing 11 workers.

It has been gushing an estimated 200,000 gallons of oil every day, which has reached several barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana, many of them sheltering fragile animal habitat.