BP Claims the Gusher Has (Finally) Been Plugged

(That's just the well...what about the big cracks in the ocean floor gushing oil, too?--jef)

***

Something good (maybe) has finally happened in the gulf:

Oil stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in nearly three months, as BP began testing the cap atop its stricken well, a critical step toward sealing the well permanently.

“I am very excited that there’s no oil in the Gulf of Mexico,” Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP, said about the flow during a teleconference on Thursday, “but we just started the test and I don’t want to create a false sense of excitement.”

Oil stopped flowing at 2:25 p.m. local time, Mr. Wells said, when engineers closed the choke line, the final seal of the well. Engineers and scientists will now examine the results of the tests every six hours to determine the pressure levels.

This is only a temporary solution though, a point stressed by both BP and President Obama:

“I think it is a positive sign, we’re still in the testing phase and I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow,” President Obama said in response to a shouted question at the conclusion of a news conference devoted entirely to the passage of the financial regulatory bill.

Mr. Wells, of BP, cautioned that this cap may not be the ultimate solution to sealing the well, and may be only an interim solution. “What we have to be careful about, depending on what this test tells us, we may need to open the well back up and go back to containment options.”

Earlier on Thursday, the national incident commander, Thad W. Allen, said that closing the well off using the containment cap would only be an interim measure, and that the company must still complete the relief wells it is working on in order to seal the well for good.