The oil well was capped July 15 with a temporary device. since then,BP and federal authorities have worried the pressure within the well could cause an underground eruption, allowing petroleum to escape uncontrollably through sea floor fissures. though contained, the well remains like a bomb, alive and dangerous. pressure saturday edged closer to 7,000 pounds per square inch or eight times more than the pressure of steam in a nuclear plant. A final assault on the damaged well could begin as early as Monday with the '' static kill, '' a delicate procedure of brute force . A trio of vessels will pump drilling mud weighing 13.2pounds per gallon in to the well at a pressure slightly higher than the pressure of the oil and gas.In that fashion the well won't beaten to death but nudged to its grave. BP has calculated that enough mud, as much as 85,000 gallons, will bully the petroleum back into its reservoir. if that happens, the well will be dead the tem porary cap could be removed, and nothing would happen.