2010-06-04 11:05

METAIRIE, Louisiana - BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears in the latest bid to curtail the worst spill in US history, but the cut was jagged and placing a cap over the gusher deep in the Gulf of Mexico proved to be a challenge.

Madison Fenton,18, of Perdido Key, Florida sits on oil containment boom into Wolf Bay at Gulf State Park in Perdido Key, Florida June 3, 2010. Oil from BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, US forecasters said, as public anger surged over the nation's worst environmental disaster. [Agencies]

Live video showed an inverted funnel-like cap slightly wider than a pipe being maneuvered into place Thursday night over the oil spewing from the busted well. However, the gushing oil made it very difficult to tell if the cap was fitting well. BP officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

A rubber seal on the inside will attempt to keep oil from escaping, though engineers acknowledge some crude will still come out.

"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 six-week-old spill. The cap cobreak breakuld be set over the gusher as early as Thursday night.

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," BP CEO Tony Hayward said.

This latest attempt is risky because slicing away the section of the 20-inch (51-centimeter)-wide riser removed a kink in the pipe, and could temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent.

BP said Crews would use methanol to try to prevent icylike crystals from forming on the inside of the cap. At this depth a mile (kilometer) underwater, the near-freezing temperatures can cause a buildup up of hydrates, which foiled the company's attempt to place a 100-ton, four-story dome over the leak about a month ago.

Meanwhile, newly disclosed internal Coast Guard documents from the day after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast indicated that US officials were warning of a leak of 336,000 gallons (1,271,860 liters) per day of crude from the well in the event of a complete blowout.

The well didn't have such a failure. But the volume turned out to be much closer to that figure than the 42,000 gallons (158,982 liters) per day that BP first estimated. Weeks later that was revised to 210,000 gallons (794,913 liters). Now, an estimated 500,000 gallons (1,893,000 liters) to 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of crude is believed to be leaking daily.

The Center for Public Integrity, which initially reported the Coast Guard logs, said it obtained them from Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The logs also showed early in the disaster that remote underwater robots were unable to activate the rig's blowout preventer, which was supposed to shut off the flow from the well in the event of such a catastrophic failure.

BP has failed so far to plug the well.

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 Brown pelicans drenched in thick oil, struggling and flailing in the surf.

Anywhere between 21 million gallons (80 million liters) and 46 million gallons (174 million liters) of oil has spewed into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

BP's Hayward promised Thursday that the company would clean up every drop of oil and "restore the shoreline to its original state."

"BP will be here for a very long time. We realize this is just the beginning," he said.