BP concluded 48 hours of testing on the new cap over their busted well, and the results are good. The oil flow has stopped, pressure is stable, and there’s no evidence – so far – that the cap has blown a new leak in the underground well.

“As we continue to see success in the temporary halt of oil from the leak, the US government and BP have agreed to allow the well integrity test to continue another 24 hours,” said National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen in a statement.

“We’re watching every piece of data,” BP Vice President Kent Wells told reporters in a conference call earlier today. “We feel more comfortable that we have integrity.”

By “integrity”, he means there are no breaks or gaps in the well; sub-surface leaks through the casing that would allow oil and gas to seep out and undermine the operation. That was a big concern when pressure at the cap didn’t rise to the expected level of 7,500 to 9,000 psi. It now appears that the lower pressure of 6,700 psi may have resulted not from leaks, but from the natural depletion caused by nearly three months of gushing from the oil reservoir.

In other words – after three months of failures and disasters, we may have dodged one last bullet.

As we noted earlier, the only reason we can state that with any certainty is because Incident Commander Thad Allen had required seismic and acoustic testing to determine if oil was leaking deep below the sea floor; if BP had gone ahead and run the cap test without it, we’d just be guessing.

Allen said, “The government has ordered additional monitoring of the area while the test continues which includes doubling the seismic mapping runs over the well site. A NOAA sonar ship has also been brought to the site to assist in monitoring the entire sea floor area around the well. The ship will make regular passes around the well looking for any hydrocarbon release subsea, and both acoustic and visual monitoring of the area with ROV’s will continue. The pressure in the capping stack continues to increase very slowly and we want to continue to monitor this progress.”

If there is any sort of breakout (like an aneurism popping), we’ll know about it in time to prevent catastrophic failure. Allen will make that call if it has to be made.

“When this test is eventually stopped,” he said, “we will immediately return to containment, using the new, tighter sealing cap with both the Helix Producer and the Q4000. Additional collection capacity of up to 80,000 barrels per day is also being added in the coming days.”

This would be a temporary fix in any case; BP continues to drill two relief wells that will intersect the Deepwater Horizon/Macondo well nearly a mile underground; those wells would be used to inject heavy mud and concrete into the shaft and permanently kill the well. That operation is expected to conclude in late August.

In the meantime, there’s a spectacular amount of cleanup to do from America’s worst oil spill and worst ecological disaster.

We’ve staunched the bleeding. Now it’s time to start the healing.

Resources:

• Watch the Live Video Feed from the wellhead and cap (probably short-term)
• For information about the response effort, visit www.restorethegulf.gov. 
• For specific information about the federal-wide response, visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/deepwater-bp-oil-spill. 
• To contact the Deepwater Horizon Joint Information Center, call (985) 902-5231. 
• To volunteer, or to report oiled shoreline, call (866) 448-5816. Volunteer opportunities can also be foundhere.
• To submit your vessel as a vessel of opportunity skimming system, or to submit alternative response technology, services, or products, call 281-366-5511. 
• To report oiled wildlife, call (866) 557-1401. Messages will be checked hourly. 
• For information about validated environmental air and water sampling results, visithttp://www.epa.gov/bpspill. 
• For National Park Service updates about potential park closures, resources at risk, and NPS actions to protect vital park space and wildlife, visit http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/oil-spill-response.htm. 
• For daily updates on fishing closures, visit http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov. 
• To file a claim, or report spill-related damage, call BP’s helpline at (800) 440-0858. A BP fact sheet with additional information is available here. For those who have already pursued the BP claims process and are not satisfied with BP’s resolution, can call the Coast Guard at (800) 280-7118. More information about what types of damages are eligible for compensation under the Oil Pollution Act as well as guidance on procedures to seek that compensation can be found here.
• In addition, www.disasterassistance.gov has been enhanced to provide a one-stop shop for information on how to file a claim with BP and access additional assistance—available in English and Spanish.
• Any members of the press who encounter response personnel restricting their access or violating themedia access policy set forth by Admiral Allen should contact the Joint Information Center. Click here for more information, including a list of regular embed opportunities.
• For information about the response effort, visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.