British Petroleum is preparing to drill the final stretch of its relief well after its successful ‘static kill’ procedure. A ranging run – a test to help the relief well intersect with the damaged well – will be done. From today, drilling will be done in 30 feet segments, with more ranging runs in between. Once the relief well is finished, mud and cement will be pumped in and the damaged well will be considered permanently ‘killed’. The relief well is expected to hit the damaged well by 15 August. It is currently over 100ft vertically and 4ft horizontally from the planned intersection. Oil leaked into the Gulf from 20 April when the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 workers. The flow was stopped on 15 July, when a cap was used to seal the top of the wellhead. An estimated 4.9 milion barrels of oil leaked into the waters of the Gulf during 87 days, with only 800,000 barrels being captured. The firm has made it clear it will not produce oil either out of the damaged well or either of the two relief wells.