Follow the Top-Kill Procedure, Now Under Way

A helpful animation from CNN explains how mud will slow the oil flow and concrete will stop it completely—if the procedure works. In a detailed, 13-minute video produced by the company, BP's Kent Wells delivers a blow-by-blow explanation of the gambit and reviews five other procedures the company has planned to stop the oil flow in case the top-kill doesn't work. Real-time analysis of the procedure is found at the Oil Drum Web site, staffed by volunteer oil experts watching BP's video feed from one of numerous robots working below the surface. That feed may or may not be useful for actually following what's happening, but the comments there are mostly informed, some highly technical.