BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP.LN) said Monday, at this time, the well integrity test on the MC252 exploratory well continues and the pressure inside the well recently has been measured at 6,792 pounds per square inch and continues to rise slowly. MAIN FACTS: -During the test, the three ram capping stack has been closed, shutting in the well; All sub-sea containment systems namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer systems have been temporarily suspended. -Should the test conclude, the Q4000 is expected to resume capturing and flaring oil and gas through the existing system; It has been capturing and flaring an average of 8,000 barrels a day, or b/d, of oil in recent weeks. -The Helix Producer also is expected to be available to resume capturing oil and flaring gas through the recently installed floating riser system; It has the capacity to capture 20,000 b/d to 25,000 b/d of oil. -Plans continue for additional containment capacity and flexibility that are expected to ultimately increase recoverable oil volumes to 60,000 b/d to 80,000 b/d. -To date, the total volume of oil collected or flared by the containment systems is approximately 826,800 barrels. -Work on the first relief well continues; The well reached a depth of 17,864 feet as of July 18 and the next scheduled operation is to carry out a ranging run. -The first relief well has approached its last casing end point and, following the casing set, additional ranging runs will be used to guide the drill bit to a MC252 well intercept point; After interception, operations are expected to begin to kill the flow of oil and gas from the reservoir by pumping specialized heavy fluids down the relief well. -The second relief well is at a measured depth of 15,874 feet and has been temporarily halted so as not to interfere with the ranging runs being performed in the first relief well. -Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea, to protect the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, and to collect and clean up any oil that has reached shore. -Operations to skim oil continued over the weekend and have recovered, in total, 807,143 barrels or 33.9 million gallons of oily liquid; In addition, a total of 408 controlled burns have been carried out to date, removing an estimated 261,904 barrels of oil or 11 million gallons from the sea's surface. -The total length of containment boom deployed as part of efforts to prevent oil from reaching the coast is now almost 3.36 million feet or 681.8 miles. -To date, almost 116,000 claims have been submitted and more than 67,500 payments have been made, totaling $207 million. -The cost of the response to date amounts to $3.95 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. -Shares on Friday closed at 407.6 pence, valuing the company at GBP76.50 billion. -By Tapan Panchal, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel +44(0)207-842 9448, tapan.panchal@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 19, 2010 02:11 ET (06:11 GMT)