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A bid to "kill" the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well could begin in three to five days, after boats return from a storm evacuation and resume operations, a senior US official said Saturday.
"That is a very rough estimate, three to five days from now," said Admiral Thad Allen, the US official overseeing the spill response.
He spoke as drill rigs and other vessels that were evacuated ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie began returning to the well site, after forecasters said the weather system had weakened.
A cap over the wellhead has shut in leaking oil since July 15, but final operations to permanently seal the well were temporarily halted when forecasters announced a storm was headed to Gulf.
BP and US officials currently plan two operations to permanently plug, or "kill" the well.
The first, a "static kill," involves pumping heavy drilling fluids known as mud through the blowout preventer valve system that sits on top of the well, and then injecting cement to seal it.
That is the operation Allen believes could now start this coming week.
But BP and US officials say the ultimate solution is via a relief well, which will intersect the original well.
Using the same process as the static kill, drilling fluid, which is denser than oil, will be pumped via the relief well until the flow of crude is overcome, allowing the damaged well to be sealed with cement.
Officials are eager to return to work on operations to seal the leaking well, months after the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil platform that killed 11 workers and sunk the rig.
