METAIRIE, La. — BP used underwater robots a mile beneath the ocean Thursday to try to put a lid on the gulf oil gusher.
Live video showed that an inverted funnel-like cap slightly wider than a severed pipe was being maneuvered into place over the oil spewing from a busted well. However, the gushing oil made it difficult to tell whether the cap was fitting well. BP spokesman Toby Odone said he had no immediate information on whether the cap had been successfully attached.
A rubber seal on the inside will attempt to keep oil from escaping, though engineers acknowledge some crude will still come out.
BP sliced off the main pipe on the leaking oil well with giant shears in the latest bid to curtail the worst oil spill in U.S. history, but the cut was jagged, and a looser-fitting cap was needed.
“We’ll have to see when we get the containment cap on it just how effective it is,” said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the disaster.
BP PLC turned to the giant shears after a diamond-tipped saw became stuck in the pipe halfway through the job, yet another frustrating delay in the 6-week-old spill. If the cap can be put on successfully, BP will siphon the oil and gas to a tanker on the surface.
“It’s an important milestone, and in some sense, it’s just the beginning,” said BP chief executive Tony Hayward.
This latest attempt is risky because slicing away the section of the 20-inch-wide riser removed a kink in the pipe and could temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent.
Live video footage showed oil spewing unimpeded from the top of the blowout preventer, but Allen said it was unclear whether the flow increased.
Crews also will use methanol to try to prevent icelike crystals from forming on the inside of the cap. At this depth, a mile underwater, the near-freezing temperatures can cause a buildup of hydrates, which foiled the company’s attempt to place a 100-ton, four-story dome over the leak about a month ago.
The damage to the environment was chilling on East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast, where workers found birds coated in thick, black goo. Images shot by an Associated Press photographer show pelicans drenched in thick oil, struggling and flailing in the surf.
Latest developments
Bill No. 1: The White House says the federal government sent BP a $69 million bill Thursday for costs so far because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the bill was the first to be sent to the oil company, and he wasn’t sure how long the company has to pay the bill.
President “furious”: President Barack Obama said Thursday he was “furious” about the situation in the Gulf of Mexico and that BP hasn’t moved fast enough to respond to the oil spill. The president said in an interview for broadcast on CNN’s “Larry King Live” that BP has felt his anger — although he said “venting and yelling at people” won’t solve the problem. The White House said Obama will return to Louisiana today.
Freeze denial: The Interior Department denied Thursday that it had extended a drilling freeze to shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, contradicting an e-mail written earlier in the day by the Minerals Management Service’s supervisor of field operations for the gulf.
Washing ashore: Globs of oil are washing into Mobile Bay, Ala., and onto the white-sand beach at Fort Morgan, a Civil War fort in Alabama. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said oil from the vast gulf spill was within 4 miles of the panhandle coast.
Denver Post wire services
