墨西哥湾漏油"后事"花费超30亿美元

　　Underwater robots have successfully removed a leaking cap on BP's blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well, the first stage in fitting a tighter cap. However, many thousands of barrels of oil will now flow freely until the new cap is fitted, an operation that could take four to seven days. BP also said there was no guarantee of success at such a depth. A fleet of 400 skimmers is in place to try to minimise the effects of increased oil loss.

　　水下机器人已经成功移除英国石油公司在墨西哥湾石油油井泄漏处的控油罩，这是安装密闭性更强的控油罩的第一步。然而在新的控油罩安装完毕之前，尚有成千上万桶石油还会肆意涌出，而该项工程需要四到七天才能完成。英国石油公司同时表示，以这样的深度，并不一定能够保证成功。而将400个撇油器安装到位是为了尽量能够把日渐增加的泄漏石油所带来的恶果降到最低。

资料图:墨西哥湾漏油

　　The company has two other operations ongoing. One will deploy a larger surface vessel to collect oil, the other is drilling two wells to intercept the leak, which it is hoped will provide a permanent solution. The larger ship, Helix Producer, could be in place to collect leaking oil as early as Sunday. BP says the first of the relief wells will be finished in the first half of August. The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April killed 11 people. President Barack Obama has called the leak the biggest environmental disaster in US history.

　　目前有两项措施正在进行中，其一是部署一个更大的水面舰艇收集石油，另一个则是希望寻求一个永久性的解决方案——钻探两口拦截泄漏的油井。较大的一条船——螺旋生产者，将最早在周日就位收集泄漏石油。英国石油公司表示，救灾第一井将在8月上旬完工。“深水地平线”钻井平台四月发生爆炸，造成十一人死亡。美国总统奥巴马将该事件视为美国历史上最大的环境灾难。