WRAPUP 1-BP hopes to keep blown well capped

By Chris Baltimore

HOUSTON, July 18 (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Sunday its new cap has stopped the oil that has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for three months and hopes to keep it that way until relief wells can permanently seal the leak next month.

The British energy giant, which cut off the flow of oil on Thursday when it began to test the structural integrity of its blown-out Macondo well, expressed growing confidence that the well was intact.

'Right now there is no target set to open the well back up to flow,' Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, told reporters. 'We're hopeful that if the encouraging signs continue that we'll be able to continue the integrity test all the way to the point that we get the well killed.'

Originally the plan was to complete the test and then BP would reattach pipes to the capping equipment and resume siphoning oil to ships on the surface. Now the company hopes to keep the well shut until the relief well is completed in August and the leak is sealed off with heavy drilling mud and cement.

'We will take this day by day,' Suttles said. 'Clearly we don't want to reanimate flow into the Gulf if we don't have to.'

When BP choked off the gusher a mile (1.6 km) under the ocean's surface with a new, tighter-fitting containment cap, it was the first time oil has not spewed into the Gulf since an April 20 explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and triggered the disaster.

The government has not yet said what it thinks of BP's new plan to handle the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the official in charge of the government's spill response, said on Saturday the pressure test was temporary and meant to clarify options for sealing off the well in the event of a hurricane.

Allen has the final say on when the test will end and on BP's next course of action.

















PERMANENT FIX

The massive spill has caused an economic and environmental disaster in five states along the Gulf Coast.

Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana, said the new cap was good news after a three-month losing battle to try to clean up oil hitting fragile marshlands as more lapped ashore.

'We're very optimistic,' Nungesser told the 'Fox News Sunday' program. 'We see light at the end of the tunnel. It's a very long tunnel but today we're making progress.'

The spill has hurt President Barack Obama, whose public approval ratings have slipped as the crisis drags on. Some analysts said a capping of the well would help Obama by removing a symbol of government powerlessness.

Obama welcomed the success of the new cap but cautioned there was much work to be done on a permanent solution.

The test is monitoring the pressure in the well, which extends 2.5 miles (4 km) under the seabed, to judge whether it is structurally sound and able to withstand the process to seal the leak.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert and John O'Callaghan; Writing by Deborah Charles; Editing by xxx) Keywords: OIL SPILL ([e-mail]; [phone], [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.