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Admiral Thad Allen just announced that the well integrity test has gotten a green light. For background on what this means, see this and this.

The test has already started. You can watch live here.

As I noted yesterday, BP suspended the "top kill" operation for 16 hours - because, according to numerous experts, it was creating more damage to the well bore - without even telling the media, local officials or the public that it had even delayed the effort until long afterwards.

Similarly, it took more than 5 hours for BP to publicly announce the delay of the well integrity test after the decision to delay was made.

More importantly, oil industry expert Rob Cavner - who has been right about virtually everything so far, previously explaining that there is damage in the oil well beneath the seafloor, and that BP has to let the oil spill keep on gushing to avoid further damage to the well bore until the well can be killed with relief wells (subsequently confirmed by BP) - now says that he is worried that the well integrity test could further damage the well bore and could blow out the entire well:ndustry expert Rob Cavner - who has been right about virtually everything so far, previously explaining that there is damage in the oil well beneath the seafloor, and that BP has to let the oil spill keep on gushing to avoid further damage to the well bore until the well can be killed with relief wells (subsequently confirmed by BP) - now says that he is worried that the well integrity test could further damage the well bore and could blow out the entire well:

Recently-retired Shell Oil President John Hofmeister made a similar point today:

I think the fundamental issue… is there are serious concerns about the integrity of the casing that is the well itself. And that by putting the cap on and doing the stress tests… that the integrity of the steel is insufficient to hold the pressure of the well. And if you lose the casing its game over. It’s like having a volcano on the bottom of the sea. If you lose the casing and oil starts coming up on the outside of the casing you cant stop it. There’s nothing you can do that would stop it…other than implode the well. There are many in the industry that feel the casing must have been damaged because of the power of that well, the pressure of that reservoir.

Hofmeister stresses:

Let's not do the "stress tests" until we're ready to go with the relief wells... Better have relief wells up and operating before [you run any integrity tests].

YouTube Video

And as Cavner points out today, the government and BP are fooling around instead of killing off this monster once and for all with the relief wells: