(© BP p.l.c.) BP group chief executive Tony Hayward discusses the Gulf operation with a member of the US Coast Guard.
Self-Described "Lowly Plumber" Designs Plug For Gulf Oil Spill
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JULY 16, 2010
David Johnson, Citizen Journalist

A man who described himself as a "lowly plumber" is thought to be the designer of the containment cap that is currently stopping the flow of oil at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Six weeks ago Professor Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, received a call, and later sketches, from an anonymous plumber with an idea design of a flange and seal that are identical to the current containment cap which has at least temporarily stopped the BP Gulf oil spill.
Professor Bea, a former Shell executive and researcher, thought the idea had real potential to help and sent the sketches directly to the US Coast Guard.
"The idea was using the top flange on the blowout preventer as an attachment point and then employing an internal seal against that flange surface," says Bea. "You can kind of see how a plumber thinks this way. That's how they have to plumb homes for sewage."
BP has received 300,000 ideas from around the world for how to cap the well after decades-old methods failed. Everyone from amateur inventors to engineers have swamped the unified command with ideas.
The MC252 well integrity test is still being conducted. Currently the well remains shut-in with no oil flowing into the Gulf.
For more on the story, read this article by Patrik Jonsson: www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0715/BP-oil-spill
Read updates at the BP website: www.bp.com