BP oil spill cap ready for testing

Faulty hose has been replaced and technicians are moving towards finally closing off flow into Gulf of Mexico, say official

Image from a BP video shows oil flowing from a valve before a leak stopped tests on the containment cap in the Gulf of Mexico. Photograph: AP
BP engineers trying to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico have fixed a leak in the new containment system and are preparing to start critical pressure tests of the cap, the company has said.

Kent Wells, BP's senior vice-president of exploration and production, said the team had replaced the defective hose and would launch the test later today.

"We landed it this morning," Wells said of the replacement hose. "I'm expecting that we'll start up (the test) here later this morning, sometime today."

The cap, installed on Monday, is a crucial step toward a four-vessel oil capture system that is hurricane-ready and can collect up to 80,000 barrels a day. The first of two relief wells is expected to intercept and plug the leak by mid-August.

It represents the best hope yet of stopping the oil from leaking into the sea since the 20 April Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 people.

The company has come under increasing pressure in the United States amid reports that it lobbied the British government for the release of the Lockerbie bomber in what is being called an oil-for-terrorist deal.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, pledged to consider Congressional demands for an investigation into the charges that BP pushed for the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to help it clinch lucrative drilling contracts off the coast of Libya.

Tests of the latest containment attempt began with BP shutting off pipes that were funnelling some of the oil to ships on the surface, meaning the full force of the gusher went up into the cap. Deep-sea robots began slowly closing three openings that let oil pass through. Ultimately the flow of crude will be blocked entirely.

Engineers watched pressure readings to check whether the well was intact. The first two are simple on-off valves. The third – the one with the leaking hose – is closed gradually and takes longer.

Retired coastguard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the government response to the disaster, said a committee of scientists and engineers would monitor the results and assess them every six hours. The test would end after 48 hours to evaluate the findings.

"I was gung-ho for this test and I remain gung-ho for this test," he said.

If the cap works it will enable BP to stop the oil from gushing into the sea, either by holding it back like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channelling some through lines to as many as four collection ships.

The cap was lowered on to the well on Monday. But before BP could test it the government intervened because of concerns about whether the buildup of pressure from the gushing oil could rupture the walls of the well and make the leak worse.

Allen said: "We sat long and hard abo

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