BP tries a new cap

Due to the depth of the cracked well, the job of removing one cap and installing another, as well as other work on the well, is done by remotely controlled robotic devices.

BP officials said the new cap will be assisted in its funneling operation by the start-up of the Helix Producer, an oil recovery vessel that is also in the process of being hooked up to the well.

McGahan said BP expected the Helix Producer to be installed by Sunday night. Wells said the vessels will begin collecting oil as soon as it is hooked up and, within three days, should be collecting oil at full capacity, or between 20,000 and 25,000 barrels - 840,000 to 1.5 million gallons -- a day.

Wells said another recovery vessel, the Q4000, which captures and burns about 8,000 barrels of oil, should continue to function while the new cap installation goes forward. Skimming vessels will also continue working, BP officials said.

Although the company is hoping to divert most if not all the oil via the new cap, the Helix Producer and the Q4000, a permanent solution to the gushing leak is not expected until August when a relief well will have been completed.

"We are still looking at mid-August for completion of the relief well," BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said. "It's a wide time bracket, of course, because of unknown factors, from day-to-day working conditions to hurricanes."

The government estimates that between 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil per day may be released into the Gulf before the procedure is complete.

When the leak is finally stopped, the enormous cleanup will continue. The fishing and tourism industries have been decimated and an independently administered multi-billion dollar fund, supplied by BP, has begun paying out damages to individuals and businesses affected by the spill.

Long-term harm to the Gulf environment, including fish, bird and animal species, wildlife habitats and the coastlands of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, cannot yet be calculated. It is also not yet known how far the oil may spread in and beyond the Gulf.

The health of the approximately 33,000 spill relief workers in the Gulf region has also come under scrutiny.

The disaster, the biggest oil leak in U.S. history, began on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 crew members and rupturing the well. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.