BP removes failed blowout preventer

NEW ORLEANS – BP PLC said the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico was removed from the company’s well on Friday afternoon.

The process of raising it to the surface was to be painstaking because engineers want to make sure not to damage or drop the contraption. The blowout preventer wasn’t expected to reach the surface until today, at which point government investigators will take possession of it.

A BP spokesman said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that the 50-foot, 300-ton device was detached from the wellhead at 1:20 p.m. CDT.

Earlier in the day, a vessel had latched onto the equipment to raise it from a mile beneath the sea.

The blowout preventer is considered a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation. Investigators will examine it and hope to gain insight into why the device failed to prevent the spill. Late Friday, the government said another blowout preventer had successfully been placed on the blown-out well.

The April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s undersea well.

Investigators know the explosion was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well.

But they don’t know why the blowout preventer didn’t seal the well pipe at the sea bottom after the eruption.

The government wanted to replace the failed blowout preventer to deal with any pressure that is caused when a relief well BP has been drilling intersects the blown-out well.