The Obama administration on Thursday ordered BP to remove the failed blowout preventer from its Deepwater Horizon well and preserve it as likely evidence in civil and criminal investigations. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen issued the instruction after a week of what he called "intense negotiation" between BP and government scientists over how to proceed with completing a relief well.
Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the oil spill, said the new instruction will push back the relief well completion date until sometime after Sept. 6. "We do not want to have damage to the blowout preventer," he said in explaining the delay. "We are concerned about preserving evidence."
Why the blowout preventer -- a giant collection of valves designed to sever a deepwater well's drilling pipe in the event of an emergency -- didn't work has been a key question for investigators probing the April 20 explosion that killed 11 oil rig workers and sparked a gusher that caused billions of dollars in economic damages along the Gulf Coast.
MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE
