BP successfully stops leak

The worst oil spill in US history is finally under control as BP said Wednesday that it had succeeded in plugging its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and.

The eight-hour "static kill" procedure, which involved pumping heavy drilling fluid, known in the industry as mud, into the busted well, had gone as planned, although the situation would continue to be monitored.

"The well is completely under control," BP's London office press spokesman, Robert Wine, told the Global Times. "We are waiting for the next stage of approvals from the US government on whether or not we can start cementing the well, which will be the next stage."

Robert said that cementing is expected to start shortly and might take a week or so.

"If we do start cementing, we still want to complete the relief well work, which will kill the reservoir down below. We are getting very close to killing the well forever," he said. "Certainly since July 15, there has been no more oil getting into the water."

Hours after the statement, Carol Browner, US President Barack Obama's energy adviser, revealed that about 75 percent of the 4.1 million barrels of oil spilled directly into the Gulf have been dealt with.

According to her, the US government will release a report saying that scientists had determined that containment, burning, and skimming measures worked in dealing with the oil spill.

About 25 percent of the oil had not been captured or evaporated, and there still would be some tar balls washing up onshore, but the government would make sure those were cleaned up as quickly as possible, Browner said on ABC's "Good Morning America" show.

"We do feel like this is an important turning point," she said.

The New York Times said the government report was expected to say that what is left of the oil is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk.

Most of it is a light sheen on the surface or dispersed below the surface, and federal scientists believe it is breaking down rapidly, the newspaper reported.

"I find it very hard to believe, impossible actually, that they have three-quarters of the oil accounted for," Samantha Joye, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Georgia in Athens, said today in an e-mailed message to Bloomberg.

Joye was among the scientists who discovered plumes of oil under the water's surface and is continuing to survey and analyze the results, Bloomberg added.

Agencies - Global Times