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By Kristen Hays
Houston - BP said on Thursday no oil was leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since its huge spill began in April as it conducted pressure tests on its blown-out deep-sea well.
For the test, BP closed valves and vents on a tight-sealing containment cap installed atop its ruptured well earlier this week. Initial results early in the test showed the cap had completely contained the flow of oil, BP said.
"It's a great sight but it's far from the finish line," Doug Suttles, a senior BP executive, told reporters.
BP's US shares initially jumped 10 percent after the company announced that its test had shut off the flow of oil.
President Barack Obama called the end of the flow of oil into the ocean a "positive sign", but cautioned that the latest effort was still in the testing phase. The spill has caused an economic and environmental disaster along the US Gulf Coast.
As the company pushed ahead on the spill-control effort, US energy company Apache was moving forward on a possible $10-billion deal for some BP properties, including major assets in Alaska, CNBC reported.
After a delay to fix a leak, BP began the test on Thursday afternoon on the cap that could stop all or most of the flow of crude that has been polluting the ocean and coastline since April 20 in the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
The test, which could last between six to 48 hours, gauges pressure in the well - which extends 4km under the seabed - to assess its condition. Officials said it will show whether the cap can safely shut off the flow from the well if oil-capture vessels at the surface must disconnect.
The US Coast Guard has described the containment cap as at best a temporary fix to the leak while BP finishes two relief wells that it is drilling that are intended to intersect the blown-out well and permanently seal it next month.
The test is intended to determine whether the structure of the lengthy well is damaged or intact. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the US government's point man on the spill, compared the test to placing one's thumb over the end of a garden hose - if the pressure does not increase that means there is a leak somewhere.
Regarding the BP well, a build-up of pressure would signal that the well is intact, which would make it easier to seal it with the relief wells.
The cap is a crucial step toward a multi-vessel oil-capture system that is hurricane-ready and can collect up to 80 000 barrels per day.
That should be more than enough to capture the whole well output, as estimates put the spill rate between 35 000 barrels and 60 000 barrels a day.
Allen backed away from earlier assurances that the new cap would be used to completely seal the well until the relief wells eventually kill it with heavy mud and cement.
Allen said the cap could shut the well, but might be used only to block the flow during emergency situations like a hurricane when BP's surface containment effort would be suspended. "The intention of the capping stack was never to close in the well per se," Allen said in New Orleans. - Reuters