Louisiana (Reuters) - Government and BP officials are warning that the
blown-out oil well causing an environmental disaster on the Gulf Coast
may not be stopped until August as the company begins preparations on a
new attempt to capture the leaking crude.

The disaster, in its 42nd day on Monday, is already the largest oil
spill in U.S. history and officials are calling it the country's biggest
environmental catastrophe.

In the wake of a devastating failure this weekend to plug the BP well
with the tricky "top kill" operation, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward
said the Gulf of Mexico leak may not be stopped for two months.

"There's no doubt that the ultimate solution lies on the relief well,
which is in August," he said on Sunday as he toured the Louisiana
fishing hub of Venice, largely idled by the spill. *****

The drilling of two relief wells began in May, an expensive but reliable
way to intercept and cap the leaking well that ruptured with a deadly
rig explosion on April 20.

In the meantime, Hayward said BP needs "to be in the mind-set of
containment in the sub-sea, containment on the surface and defending the
shoreline, in a very aggressive way."

The Gulf spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in
1989 as the worst U.S. oil spill, with an estimated 12,000 to 19,000
barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons/1.9 million to 3 million liters)
leaking per day.

Right now, BP is preparing a containment cap to place on top of a lower
marine riser package (LMRP), which is a piece of equipment that sits
atop the failed blowout preventer at the seabed one mile below the surface.

The White House said the company would begin cutting a pipe that rises
out of the so-called LMRP on Monday or Tuesday.

If the containment operation works -- and BP expects to know later this
week -- then at least some of the leaking oil could be piped to the surface.


*****Wait, wait, don't tell me...we're supposed to believe BP will have
it controlled by August. More corporate b.s.


--
The Tea Party's teabaggers are just the Republican base by another name.