CNN 2010-07-19

It's another day, another setback 1 in the Gulf 2 oil spill disaster. Here's the latest news on day 87 of this Gulf oil crisis. Equipment that BP was using to help stop the oil gushing 3 into the water from a ruptured 4 well, well that is now leaking. That forced an immediate 5 stop to the crucial testing that had gotten underway. The government's point man on the crisis, Admiral Thad Allen, who we've heard so much from, he concedes that the experts wrestled 6 with the decision and sided with caution. A cautious approach, he says.

Just minutes ago the oil company announced that it is working around the problem and hopes to resume testing sometime this afternoon. We'll stay on top of it for you. So we want to go to the ground now and get the very latest developments. And for that, we go to CNN's David Mattingly. He is in New Orleans. Another setback, another day, another setback, David.

Well, Don, another setback, but now another step forward. We've got word from BP now that they have been able to remove the leaking line that they had on there, replace it, and now they're back on track to get this all-important pressure testing of this well going again. They've got a lot of things they've got to do now. They've got to test the seals. They've got to bring the ROVs back online. But again, they are back on track. This leak costing them probably about 24 hours in this process, but they are prepared to move forward again.

Another bit of good news that we found out in the technical briefing was that the oil that we saw spewing out in the Gulf was only a fraction of the oil that's coming out of there. A lot, they were able to restore the collection procedures to the Q4000 and healer producer up on the surface so they were bringing up a lot of that oil that they were before up to the containment 7 vessels 8 on the surface. When they get closer and get ready to close this cap in again, they will cut that off and try to do what they were not able to do last night.

Everything seemed to be going so well originally when they closed that first valve and they were able to shut off the oil that was spewing out of the top of that, but that's when they discovered the leak in the choke line, but again they removed the choke line overnight, were able to replace it and now they're going to get back on track with what they had planned and what Thad Allen laid out for us yesterday.

David, is there a timeline in all of this?

They're not really putting out a timeline because they're sort of feeling their way through this. They've got to make sure that that cap is going to be able to close the way they want it to. They're going to start doing that a little later this morning and maybe by this afternoon they're going to be able to start resuming their plans to engage with that pressure checking to see if the well can handle the pressure once they close it all up. And again, that's going to be important because they're going to be getting information that's going to help them when they finally have the final solution where they're drilling down with that relief well to fill it up with cement. So this is going to be very important over the next 48 hours to see what they learn and what they can do with this. One of the hopes is that in the interim 9, they'll be able to cap this well and essentially 10 make it hurricane-proof because of a tropical storm or if a hurricane comes through, they'll have to stop all those surface collection operations and move them out for safety. Meanwhile, all the oil would be leaking into the Gulf if they're not able to cap this. So, again, back on track. The next 48 hours, we're going to see how this well works and how this well can handle the pressure as BP continues to go through their technical procedures to make it happen