National Incident Commander Thad Allen says that the Gulf oil spill might be contained by Monday thanks to a new cap and cleanup crews using large vessels to pull oil from the water. If all goes according to plan, then Monday will be the first time that oil is not escaping into the Gulf of Mexico since April 20.

Allen was very careful about his words during the announcement. Notice that he says “contain” not “stop.” That’s because they do not expect to actually stop the oil leak by Monday. They just hope to prevent more oil from entering the Gulf Coast. That largely means capturing the oil that’s spurting from the leak.

In the meantime, BP is drilling two relief wells that would completely divert the leak. That plan, however, isn’t scheduled for completion until mid-August. Some have estimated that the relief wells will actually be completed by mid-July. BP, for once, doesn’t want to get too optimistic. Where was that attitude back when they were underestimating  the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf by something like 40,000 barrels per day?

One of the ways that Allen expects to gather oil from the water is by using the Helix Producer ship. This ship should be able to gather and contain approximately 60,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil a day. That would take a lot of stress off of the environment, but it doesn’t mean that cleanup is over. There are still plenty of shores and marshes that have been destroyed by the oil leak.

There’s also a chance that the Helix won’t work out as well as hoped. The ship, after all, was supposed to start gathering oil from the leak last week. That strategy was delayed because of weather conditions. It currently looks like a beneficial weather pattern will allow the ship to work its science on the spill.

(Image via: Oil and Gas Journal)