Boat with Containment Box at Site

The boat hauling the specially built containment box and dome structure pushed off Wednesday evening from the Louisiana coast and arrived Thursday morning.

Another boat with a crane will be used to lower the contraption to the seafloor to cover the gusher of oil spewing from the seabed - something that's never been tried before at such depths. BP spokesman Bill Salvin says the drop is expected at about noon.

Work continues to attempt to bring the MC252 oil well under control, to stop the flow of oil and to contain the oil subsea. A valve that had been attached to the end of a broken drill pipe, one of the three points from which oil was leaking, was closed. This has stopped the flow from this point, but is not expected to affect the overall rate of flow from the well. BP continues to use ROVs to monitor the flow of oil from the other two leak points.

Collecting and dispersing oil that has reached the surface of the sea continues, contributing to protect the shoreline.

By mid-afternoon, twelve flights over the spill had been completed, delivering a total of 34,000 gallons of dispersant. During the day further in situ burning of oil on the surface of the water was carried out.
80,000 feet of boom was deployed during the day. This brought the total length of boom now deployed to protect the shore to over 100 miles.

More than 11,000 people have so far volunteered to assist in efforts to protect the coastline and in the clean up of any spill. More than 4,000 have already received training.