I've always wondered why they don't just intersect the relief wells with the ori...

ars · on June 4, 2010

They want to do something called a "Bottom Kill" vs. a "Top Kill". So you have to be at the bottom of the well.

A top kill doesn't always work, but a bottom kill is pretty guaranteed.

The oil pushes whatever material you inject up. So you want to be at the bottom so the material fills the entire pipe.

po · on June 4, 2010

That's a good question. I assumed it was because there is a sleeve pipe that goes way down and they want to intersect below that.

I'm actually pretty amazed that they seem to be able navigate the drill well enough to hit a pipe that deep in the earth.