BP shares rise as it starts winning battle to contain oil
BP shares rose 14½p to 544½p today as the oil giant finally gave the world some good news about its Gulf of Mexico clean-up operation.
The stock increase will go only a very small way towards reversing the $30 billion (£21 billion) wiped off BP's value since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, causing the well to burst and killing 11 crew members.
However BP's engineers said they had finally worked out a way to siphon some of the oil that has been spewing into the sea for almost a month to the surface.
Using underwater robots, BP inserted a mile-long pipe into the broken riser to partially seal the spill and carry some of the leaking oil to a drillship nearby.
But the oil firm warned: "This remains a new technology and both its continued operation and its effectiveness in capturing the oil and gas remains uncertain. It will take some time to increase the flow through the system and maximise the proportion of oil and gas that will be captured and transported to the drillship."
In the US, President Barack Obama's administration was unimpressed by BP's news. It issued a statement saying: "This technique is not a solution to the problem and it is not yet clear how successful it may be.
"We will not rest until BP permanently seals the wellhead, the spill is cleaned up, and the communities and natural resources of the Gulf Coast are restored and made whole."
Experts said BP's siphoning device was unlikely to capture more than 15% to 20% of the leaking oil, which scientists now believe to be far more than analysts' early estimates of 5000 barrels per day.
BP said it was continuing to work on its relief wells, which it said would take some three months to complete, and added it was still looking for new ways to halt the leak. They include a "top kill" operation injecting heavy fluids into the well to stem the oil, or firing a so-called junk shot, which will involve using debris like tyres and golf balls to block the well's blow-out preventer.
