E2 Round-up: White House calls the shots on BP response, feds and BP eye ‘static kill’ as well tests continue, and BP dumps assets to raise $7 billion in spill cash

“Another day, another directive. The Obama administration now is controlling BP’s checkbook and resources in the Gulf as the two sides respond to the disaster, from use of oil-busting dispersants to the language of announcements.”

A new option has emerged for sealing BP’s ruptured Macondo well

The “top kill” failed weeks ago, but the tight-fitting cap that’s now blocking the oil flow has put another plan in play: a “static kill.”

Here’s Reuters on the latest addition to the runaway oil well lexicon:

“BP Plc and U.S. government scientists are in talks about trying to plug its Gulf of Mexico well from the top with a so-called ‘static kill,’ the top U.S. spill official said on Tuesday.”

“Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen also told reporters at a briefing in Washington that he approved extending BP’s key pressure test on the blown-out Macondo well another day.”

“He said that the new procedure could augment a relief well, which remains on target to kill the leak by mid-August. ‘We’ll probably have a good idea over the next 24 hours exactly what the detailed plan by BP would be to do that,’ he said.”

“Like BP’s failed ‘top kill’ in May, a static kill would involve pumping heavy drilling mud and cement into the well through a hose into a failed blowout preventer at the seabed. Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president of exploration and production, explained at a separate briefing that the difference would be the cap atop that blowout preventer, which now shuts in all flows.”

BP shedding assets in several countries as spill costs mount

“BP has sold oil and gas properties in the United States, Egypt and Canada to Houston-based Apache Corp. for $7 billion as part of the oil giant’s effort to raise cash to cover oil spill expenses and bolster its financial position, the two companies announced Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.

“The sale takes BP most of the way toward its goal of raising $10 billion over the next year by selling exploration and production assets. Those asset sales would cover half of the $20 billion BP has pledged to put in an escrow fund to cover claims resulting from the spill.”

“The deal includes oil and gas reserves in Texas and southeastern New Mexico, natural gas reserves in western Canada, and the Western Desert business concessions and East Badr El-din exploration concession in Egypt.”