Written by Sangita Iyer | 03 June 2010

British Petroleum’s latest and possibly last-ditch attempt to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico well ran into another snag Wednesday.  This, even as the slick of crude oil from the spill encroached closer to previously untainted beaches in three more U.S. states.

Using remotely controlled robots, BP was attempting to saw through a damaged pipe on the seafloor more than 1,500 metres underwater.  This is the first stage of a risky operation to cap the blown-out well before they are able to funnel leaking oil to the surface.

But According to Adm. Thad Allen, the “diamond wire” saw became stuck as crews were trying to cut the pipe.   Allen said the crew had managed to cut a different section of the broken pipe farther from the leaking well using powerful shear, but the cut closer to the pipe that requires the diamond saw is more important, as it would allow BP, to place a "cap" or "hat" device over the sawed-off pipe and begin collecting oil.

Reuters news agency reports that the saw was freed Wednesday afternoon allowing the oil giant to resume its efforts to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, however BP has not confirmed this.

The goal Allen said is to finish the cut later Wednesday "and then to be able to put a containment device over the top of the wellhead and start containing the oil -- bring it to the surface and actually flare off the gas."

But experts caution, that is much easier said than done.

"It is an engineer's nightmare," said Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental sciences. "They're trying to fit a 21-inch cap over a 20-inch pipe a mile away. That's just horrendously hard to do. It's not like you and I standing on the ground pushing -- they're using little robots to do this."

BP's best chance to actually plug the leak rests with a pair of relief wells but those won't likely be completed until August.  And that could mean potentially millions more gallons of crude spilling into the gulf that will continue to pollute the ocean and the wetlands.

Meantime the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are trying to quell concerns of “large underwater plumes of oil”.   Jane Lubechenco, head of NOAA said although there is “a lot of oil sub-surface, the real question is, is there a significant amount of oil beyond that?"

Scientists have reportedly found “globs of oil swirl like snowflakes” across miles of the gulf, however Lubechenco said these could be planktons or natural gas expelling into the water.

Elsewhere, more federal fishing waters were closed Wednesday due to contamination by the oil, an enormous setback for one of the region's most important industries.  More than one-third of federal waters are now off-limits for fishing, along with hundreds of square miles of state waters.

Mississippi has reported its first contact with the oil spill in its sixth week, as crude reached the Mississippi Sound.  Tar balls have also shown up in Alabama.  And according to latest estimates crude oil from the leaking well has already polluted about 125 miles of Louisiana coastline and now is also threatening the coast of Florida's north western panhandle. Officials in Florida have reported an oil sheen about nine miles from Pensacola beach just as the summer tourist season is starting.

BP is starting to feel the economic pinch, as the world's fourth-largest oil company before the April 20 blowout on the drilling rig, has lost a staggering $74.4 billion, or 40 percent, of its market value in six weeks.  Investors sawed off 15 percent, or $21.1 billion, of the company's market value Tuesday, after Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department has launched criminal and civil investigations.

BP's problems go way beyond the Gulf Oil Spill, which killed 11 workers and continues to imperil marine life throughout the Gulf of Mexico.  They date back at least to 2005, when the BP refinery explosion in Texas claimed 15 lives.  Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began an investigation of the industry in 2007, and found that BP had committed 872 or 97% of all serious safety violations in the industry, according to the Center for Public Integrity analysis. What's more, these violations happened at just two BP refineries, in Texas City and in Toledo, Ohio.

According to the center, most violations occurred because BP failed to fix the problems identified as the cause of the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion.

And even as BP desperately tries to contain the latest oil spill, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has approved the first new offshore drilling project in the gulf since Obama's three-week moratorium on shallow water operations expired.  The MMS granted a permit to Bandon Oil and Gas to drill 115 feet below the sea surface in an area roughly 50 miles from Louisiana's coast.  According to a spokesperson the company would have to comply by the revised federal safety rules President Barrack Obama adopted in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Meantime in a speech at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania Obama said America’s worst enviromental catastrophe should be a wakeup call for Americans who are addicted to fossil fuel.  He warned that “the only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in the future -- if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed. And the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution."

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