NEW ORLEANS, 14 July 2010 (From AP) - The plan to start choking off oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was suddenly halted as government officials and BP said further analysis must be done Wednesday before critical tests could proceed. No explanation was given for the decision, and no date was set for when testing would begin on the new, tighter-fitting cap BP installed on the blown-out well Monday. In the meantime, oil continued spewing into the Gulf.

The oil giant had been scheduled to start slowly shutting off valves Tuesday on the cap, aiming to stop the flow of oil for the first time in three months.

BP was initially ahead of schedule on its latest effort to plug the leak. The cap was designed to be a temporary fix until the well is plugged underground. A series of methodical, preliminary steps were completed before progress stalled. Engineers spent hours on a seismic survey, creating a map of the rock under the sea floor to spot potential dangers, like gas pockets. It also provides a baseline to compare with later surveys during and after the test to see if the pressure on the well is causing underground problems.

09 June 2010 (From AP) - Experts voiced concern over the health risks for offshore workers Wednesday as BP begins burning thousands of barrels of oil to destroy the crude being collected in the Gulf of Mexico. The plans to burn off oil and gas will increase air pollution risks for BP workers near a sunken BP-leased rig as well as for residents on the Louisiana Coast more than 80 kilometres away, chemist, Wilma Subra told AFP. The burnings will put BP workers at the wellhead site "at greater risk" of adverse health effects, she warned. A key health concern is benzene a known cancer-causing agent found in oil and refined gasoline, she explained.

Louisiana on Monday reported 109 people, most of them workers, have reported spill-related illnesses since April 20, when an explosion tore through the Deepwater Horizon rig, killing 11 men. BP has been under intense pressure from the public and the White House to increase its cleanup efforts. But Subra warns the company's stated goal of accelerating oil capture rates from about 15,000 barrels a day to up to 80,000 barrels by mid-July carries health risks.

25 May 2010 (From AP) - BP on Tuesday downplayed the chances for success of a plan to seal a Gulf of Mexico oil leak, as President Barack Obama piled on pressure by announcing a second trip to the region.

The British oil giant said Wednesday would provide the first opportunity to launch the "top kill" procedure, which would smother a ruptured oil pipeline with heavy drilling fluid before ultimately sealing it with concrete. But as Obama announced he would make a second trip to Louisiana to review the situation at first hand on Friday, BP conceded it was far from certain that the process would succeed. More than a month after it began, the Oil Spill has leaked hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude into the sea, which is now lapping up on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico Coast threatening rare animal and plant life. At the moment, if a "top kill" cannot proceed, BP plans to lower a containment dome over the leak, sealing it in place to prevent the formation of ice-like hydrates caused by cold sea water mixing with natural gas.

28 April 2010 (From AP) - US officials may attempt a controlled burn of a spreading oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday to protect Coastlines, as the Coast guard warned the deadly disaster could become one of the worst spills in US history. Southern states along the Gulf Coast were bracing for the possibility that beaches and fisheries, crucial to the region's economy, could be gunked up as early as this weekend by oily ooze from a huge slick with a 965-kilometer circumference that has moved within 21 miles of the ecologically fragile Louisiana Coast.

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