Oil giant BP has managed to temporarily stop all oil flowing out of a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico as it resumed a critical test Thursday of a new tight-fitting cap placed on the leak, dpa reported.
BP Vice President Kent Wells said engineers managed to shut all valves on the cap and had begun monitoring pressure readings. The hope is that pressure will continue rising. If pressure stays low, there could be oil leaking from somewhere else in the underwater well.
The so-called integrity test was likely to take up to 48 hours. The test had earlier been interrupted because of an overnight leak in one of the lines.
Thousands of barrels of oil had been gushing daily from the ruptured well at the bottom of the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded nearly three months ago.