BP hit a snag in its latest effort to curb the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as the British energy giant's shares stabilised this evening and parts of the huge oil slick threatened Florida.
The company's latest plan is to siphon off some of the oil but first robot submarines must cut away what is left of the ruined offshore well's leaking riser pipe. Then a containment cap can be lowered over the remaining wellhead assembly, enabling BP to funnel crude to the surface.
But the diamond-tipped saw being used to cut through the pipe became stuck, and BP is employing robots on the seabed to free it, a difficult task one mile deep.
Tar balls and other oil debris from the giant, fragmented slick reached Alabama's Dauphin Island, parts of Mississippi and were less than 10 miles from Florida's northwest Panhandle coast. The region's vital seafood and tourism industries were at risk from America's biggest oil spill ever.
Florida, entering the busy beach season, is ramping up reconnaissance efforts and preparing to deploy more booms and conduct coastal cleanups. Officials prepared for landfall as early as Friday.
BP's latest plan to curb the oil flow after the 'top kill' strategy failed could represent the last best hope before August, when the company hopes to have two relief wells drilled and functioning. This latest attempted fix may actually increases the flow of oil at least temporarily before the leak can be contained.
BP, now facing a US government criminal investigation, has lost one-third of its market value or about $67 billion (£46 billion sterling) since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 and triggered the mile-deep gusher.
BP shares recovered from an earlier dip to close nearly unchanged in European trading this evening. But the costs of insuring the debt of BP, rig operator Transocean and Anadarko Petroleum Corp hit fresh highs today as concerns grew about the companies' exposure to the spill.
BP will seek to patch up its battered share price by reassuring investors the cost of cleaning up the spill is manageable and will not affect dividends, British media reported today.
BP chief executive Tony Hayward told the Financial Times that he believed the industry could reform itself to justify continued drilling in challenging areas.
As much as 19,000 barrels of oil a day has been pouring into the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana since the April 20 explosion. The accident ranks as the worst oil spill in US history, surpassing the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska.
The spreading slick coincided with the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and predictions that this summer could be the stormiest since 2005, when Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast. Commercial fishing, shrimping and oyster harvests have been shut down for weeks along much of the US Gulf Coast, home to a $6.5 billion seafood industry.
