Offshore Oil Drilling, Bp Oil Spill | featured news

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.

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.

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day. The disparity between what BP promised in its March 24 filing with federal regulators and the amount of oil recovered since the April 20 explosion underscores what some officials and environmental groups call a misleading numbers game that has led to widespread confusion about the extent of the spill and the progress of the recovery.

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 co-chairman of the commission that will study the oil spill said it would probably not lift the moratorium on deepwater drilling until next year.

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.

In prepared testimony before a House panel that is expected to question him harshly Thursday, BP chief executive Tony Hayward says the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico "never should have happened" and has left him ...

The president says he'll discuss how BP must pay claims "fairly and quickly" to compensate oil spill victims. He also says he'll name separate commanders for Florida, Alabama and Louisiana to speed response to states' residents.

President Obama previewed part of his Oval Office address in an appearance here Tuesday morning, saying he will talk about the need for BP to pay out claims "quickly and fairly'' to compensate victims of the worst environmental disaster in U.S.