Live video footage shows cap being placed over Gulf gusher in effort to capture oil

BP putting cap over spewing Gulf oil well

ON THE BOTTOM OF THE GULF OF MEXICO — BP is placing a cap over the Gulf of Mexico gusher in the latest attempt to try to control the blown-out well.

Live video footage provided by the company showed the cap over the oil and gas spewing out of a severed main pipe Thursday night.

However, the gushing oil made it very difficult to tell if the cap was fitting well.

Earlier in the day, BP PLC sliced off the main pipe with giant shears, but the cut was jagged, and crews are using a looser fitting cap.

Officials have said they will not immediately know whether the cap is successful or how much oil it can siphon to a tanker on the surface.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

METAIRIE, Louisiana (AP) — BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears in the latest bid to curtail the worst spill in U.S. history, but the cut was jagged and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging.

The inverted funnel-like cap, which is slightly wider than the severed pipe, will be placed over the spewing oil. 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 could 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.

Live video footage showed oil spewing unimpeded from the top of the blowout preventer, but Allen said it was unclear whether the flow had increased.

“I don’t think we’ll know until the containment cap is seated on there,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Crews will also 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 U.S. 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.

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan in Washington and Paul J. Weber in Houston contributed to this report.