Author: Kristen Hays, Reuters

  • BP permanently “kills” Gulf of Mexico well

    With a final shot of cement, BP Plc permanently “killed” its deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico that ruptured in April and unleashed the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the top U.S. spill official said on Sunday. Some 153 days after the Macondo well ruptured, the U.S. government confirmed that BP had succeeded…

  • BP cements Gulf oil well ahead of permanent plug

    BP finished pumping cement into its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday to seal off the source of the world’s worst offshore spill, paving the way to permanently plug the blow-out later this month. The daylong cementing operation followed earlier injections of heavy drilling mud this week that had subdued the…

  • BP well tests look good so far

    BP Plc extended for another 24 hours a critical test of its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well that so far has shut off the huge oil leak, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said on Saturday. The British energy giant, which cut off the flow of oil from the deep-sea well on Thursday…

  • BP stops flow of oil into Gulf of Mexico

    Oil is no longer spewing into the Gulf of Mexico — at least temporarily — as BP Plc said it choked off the flow from its undersea well that ruptured in April and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. BP said it stopped the leak on Thursday with the tight-sealing containment cap…

  • New cap test to stem Gulf oil flow delayed

    BP Plc on Tuesday delayed a critical test that will determine if it can close a cap atop its ruptured Macondo well that has leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the last 12 weeks. The British energy giant and U.S. authorities said they were postponing the test that had been scheduled for Tuesday…

  • Growing demand for soybeans threatens Amazon rainforest

    “Some 3,000 years ago, farmers in eastern China domesticated the soybean. In 1765, the first soybeans were planted in North America. Today the soybean occupies more US cropland than wheat. And in Brazil, where it spread even more rapidly, the soybean is invading the Amazon rainforest,” writes Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy…