BP says Gulf of Mexico well will be sealed Saturday

The oil company's relief well intersected the blown-out Macondo well on Thursday, paving the way for workers to pump in the cement that will result in the so-called "bottom kill" of the well.

Once the cementing operations are complete, the relief well will be plugged and abandoned, BP said.

BP sealed off all flow with a cap on the wellhead on July 15. Before then, the well spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil into the sea, damaging coastlines along the Gulf Coast, killing wildlife and hurting the livelihood of fisherman and others.

The well rupture on April 20 triggered an explosion and fire on Transocean Ltd's Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and sunk the vessel off the coast of Louisiana.

(Reporting by Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Doina Chiacu)