Oil Spill, Offshore Drilling | featured news

Oil giant BP is back in the black, announcing profits of $5.3 billion just a year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster left it facing heavy losses.

BP on Wednesday sued the maker of the device that failed to stop last year's calamitous Gulf oil spill and the owner of the rig that exploded, alleging that negligence by both helped cause the disaster.

BP and its chief subcontractors, Halliburton and Transocean, made decisions that increased the chances of a catastrophic blowout, a team of experts said.

Oil giant BP PLC said in an internal report posted on its website Wednesday morning that multiple companies and work teams contributed to the massive Gulf of Mexico spill that fouled waters and shorelines for months.

With the replacement of the failed blowout preventer and a cement plug in place, the well's seal is almost permanent, the federal spill response chief says. The final step will be to plug the well from the bottom.

An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused a massive oil spill.

BP Plc said on Friday it has completed a pressure test on its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well and those results are under review by government scientists and the British oil company.

BP PLC says it may in the future drill in the same Gulf of Mexico oil reservoir that blew its top and caused one of the world's worst spills. Officials said Friday at a news briefing in New Orleans that the company hasn't closed the door to tapping the reservoir again. Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles says "there's lots of oil and gas here." He says "we're going to have to think about what to do with that at some point."

Gov't scientists now estimate nearly 5 million barrels of oil have leaked into the Gulf since April, easily topping Mexico's 1979 spill of 3.3 million barrels | DAY 105Questions on Dispersants |

One hundred days after an oil well operated by BP ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico, the man overseeing the federal response is optimistic that steps planned for the coming days will finally, permanently seal the well.