BP Plc said on Sunday its new cap has stopped the oil that has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for three months and hopes to keep it that way until a relief well can permanently seal the leak next month. The British energy giant, which cut off the flow of oil on Thursday when it began to test the structural integrity of its blown-out Macondo well, expressed growing confidence that the well was intact.
-- Still no oil leaking into Gulf of Mexico
-- British PM Cameron visits Washington this week
The worst oil spill in US history has caused an economic and environmental disaster in five states along the Gulf Coast and complicated traditionally close ties with Britain.
Those concerns are certain to be on the agenda when British Prime Minister David Cameron meets President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday. "Right now there is no target set to open the well back up to flow," Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, told reporters. "We're hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue that we'll be able to continue the integrity test all the way to the point that we get the well killed."
The plan had been to complete the test and then for BP to reattach pipes to the capping equipment and resume siphoning oil to ships on the surface. Now the company hopes to keep the well shut until the relief well is completed in August and the leak is sealed off with heavy drilling mud and cement.
"We will take this day by day," Suttles said. "Clearly we don't want to reanimate flow into the Gulf if we don't have to." When BP choked off the gusher a mile (1.6 km) under the ocean's surface with a new, tighter-fitting containment cap, it was the first time oil has not spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and triggered the disaster.
The government has not yet said what it thinks of BP's new plan to handle the spill. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the official in charge of the government's spill response, said on Saturday the pressure test was temporary and meant to clarify options for sealing off the well in the event of a hurricane.