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NEW ORLEANS — BP’s blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is not yet plugged for good, and work on what has been touted as the permanent solution will need to continue, the federal government said Friday.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the spill response, said during a news conference that crews must move forward drilling the relief well even though officials were still working out the best way to finish it.

“The relief well will be finished,” he said. “We will kill the well.”

BP had thought the mud and cement pumped in from above the leak might have essentially killed the well.

But the relief well will allow engineers to pump in mud and cement from below, which is intended to permanently seal the well.

Work on the relief well and a second backup well was stopped this week because of bad weather.

The decision to proceed with the so-called bottom kill operation means a key milestone in the crisis that wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast’s economy and ecosystem remains days off. However, Allen has repeatedly insisted on an “overabundance of caution” when it comes to permanently plugging the well.

“If it’s a nearly redundant safety measure, that makes sense to us,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who attended a closed-door meeting Friday with Allen, local leaders and other federal officials.

Jindal said he was glad the work would proceed, as long as there is no risk of damaging the temporary plug that has so far choked off the flow of crude.

Officials had been testing the pressure beneath the cement seal currently in place. Steady pressure would indicate the presence of cement in the space between the inner piping and the outer casing, likely indicating a permanent seal.

But because pressure rose during the testing, the scientists concluded that space still needs to be filled.

It would have been difficult to say the bottom kill was unnecessary after promising it for weeks as the ultimate solution, said Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute.

“That’s been the mantra all along, that they wanted to do the bottom kill,” he said.

Drilling of the first relief well began in early May. Since then, the drill has been guided about 3 miles from the surface and 2 miles beneath the sea floor to within 30 to 50 feet of the target. The drill is about as wide as a grapefruit, its target less than half the size of a dartboard.

It’s unclear when the drilling could be finished. Officials had projected as early as Friday before nasty weather forced the operation to a halt. Drilling that final stretch is a time-consuming and careful process, as engineers work to ensure they don’t miss.

Before July 15, oil leaked almost unimpeded for nearly three months, spewing about 206 million gallons of oil into the gulf, according to the government’s latest estimate.