Reply #37: "BP official: 'We've significantly cut the flow' of oil from damaged rig"

[ClarkUSA]

'Jeff Childs, a deputy incident commander for BP, said in a briefing with Alabama officials that the company successfully shut a set of hydraulic shears known as annular rams, helping to clamp the ruptured pipe and block the leaking oil.

"We've significantly cut the flow through the pipe," Childs said at the Mobile briefing hosted by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa... Officials also said as BP is preparing a system never tried nearly a mile under water to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well a mile under Gulf of Mexico waters.

BP officials said they hope the system could collect as much as 85 percent of oil rising from the seafloor.

The plan to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes being built to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface will need at least another six to eight days to get it in place, with weather also a factor.'

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/bp_official_weve_significantly.html