How many strikes will BP get or need to close the well? The "top kill" method was the fourth attempt. The question still remains why BP drilled this well in the first place. The NY Times claims that last June BP was worried that the casing might collapse under high pressure, which violated the company's safety policies. But, policies be damned. There seemed to be a lot of oil to be drilled.
In March BP told MMS that they had problems of "well control"; but they pressed on. The quality of the casing was questioned again in April, when the project was over budget and behind schedule. There were problems with the blowout preventer when it was tested for pressure as high as 10,000-pounds-per-square-inch. So, they lowered the maximum to 6,500 pounds per square inch.
From what I've read, it sounds as though the pressure today is just too powerful to be overcome by the methods used thus far. One supposed expert has proposed putting a nuclear bomb down the well to shut it off. Don't laugh. Pravda claims that Russia has done this five times.
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