BP: Drilling Rig Has Reconnected To Relief Well

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) said Tuesday that a rig task with drilling a relief well at the Deepwater Horizon location is back on site and has reconnected to the well after evacuating last weekend due to a tropical storm. In a statement on its website, BP said that the rig, Transocean Ltd.'s (RIG) Development Driller III, has reconnected to a valve, known as the blow-out preventer, on the seafloor. The company is testing the blow-out preventer on Monday. BP said pressure continues to slowly increase and is now at about 6928 pounds per square inch. The relief well, which aims to intersect the Macondo well and flood it with cement, is seen as the ultimate method to kill the damaged well that has spewed millions of barrels of crude in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. But before it gets to the intersection, BP aims to attempt a so-called "static kill," flooding the well with drilling mud from the top. In a teleconference Monday, the head of the federal spill response effort, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said that the static kill should start Aug. 2, and the relief well could be completed five to seven days later. -By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9214; angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 27, 2010 10:56 ET (14:56 GMT)