Offshore Drilling | featured news

Engineers fighting the Gulf oil spill are confident that the cap over the well is strong enough that they may be able to plug it up soon.

One of China's biggest ports shut Monday after a pipeline explosion triggered a major offshore oil spill.

Despite concerns about problems on the seafloor near the well, government officials on Monday said they would allow the pressure test to continue.

The recently recapped oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could remain closed until the relief well is drilled if tests remain favorable, a BP official said Sunday morning.

Officials on Saturday said that pressure readings in the well were rising steadily after the valves were closed on a cap at the well’s top.

BP Plc said on Thursday it stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from its deep-sea well for the first time since it ruptured in April, prompting hope that the leak can be plugged for good.

BP said today its attempt to place a new cap on its ruptured undersea well was proceeding as planned. But while robots replace the old cap, crude is flowing freely.

Robert Dudley, who will take charge of BP’s spill response, has plenty of experience dealing with a hostile government, unhappy partners and angry citizens.

The owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which is spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, on Tuesday criticized President Barack Obama's six-month ban on deepwater drilling.

A day after its chief executive's widely panned appearance before Congress, BP said Friday that it would replace Tony Hayward as head of its oil-spill cleanup effort.