BP's handle on Gulf spill pivots on 'top kill'

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Dogged by delays and intense pressure from the Obama administration, BP <:BP.LO:>Plc faces a pivotal day on Wednesday as it attempts a tricky plan to clog the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well five weeks into the disaster.

If the "top kill" procedure joins the list of BP failures to plug the leak, U.S. President Barack Obama's government may have no choice but to take central charge of the response to what is considered the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Obama has told aides in recent days to "plug the damn hole" and he will head to the Louisiana Gulf coast on Friday for the second time since the April 20 rig blast that killed 11 and unleashed the oil.

Despite frustration with BP -- which admitted that it may have made a "fundamental mistake" in working on the rig hours before the explosion -- the government relies almost exclusively on the energy titan's deepwater technology.

Equipped with underwater robots, BP engineers plan on Wednesday to inject heavy drilling fluids into the mile- (1.6 km) deep well, a complex manoeuvre that has never been attempted at such depths.

Before they try to seal the well, they pumped so-called "mud" into the well head on Tuesday to gauge if the well could be damaged at high pressure and augment the leak.

Industry experts told the Reuters Global Energy Summit that the top kill plan is "doable" and has a 50-50 percent chance of working, while playing down concerns of a bigger leak.

BP has other options if the top kill fails, including the installation of a new dome and a new blow-out preventer over the old one that failed in the rig explosion.

NO END IN SIGHT

But BP is in a race against time to save the Gulf of Mexico's unique ecosystem and lucrative fishing industry, as well as the company's reputation and its heavy presence in the United States.

BP has lost about a quarter of its markets value -- or $50 billion -- since the disaster began to unfold.

The London-based company has estimated that about 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 litres) have been leaking every day, although some scientists have given much higher numbers for the size of the leak -- up to 20 times more.

BP told congressional investigators on Tuesday that pressure tests on a drill pipe hours before the deadly explosion that caused the Gulf of Mexico oil leak showed a "fundamental mistake," a memo released by two congressmen showed.

The memo, by Representatives Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak, who were briefed by BP about the progress of its internal investigation, also said problems were found in equipment meant to provide fail-safe protection against a blow out.

Obama is expected to send a message on Thursday to the oil industry of tougher safety requirements for offshore drilling rigs, an official said. He also will receive that day a report on the disaster from the Interior Department.

With no end in sight for the environmental catastrophe, analysts say the oil spill could be a major political liability for Obama ahead of November elections that are widely expected to erode his Democratic Party's control of the U.S. Congress.

A CBS News poll released Tuesday showed 70 percent of Americans disapprove of BP's handling of the disaster but 45 percent give the Obama administration a negative rating despite his administration's efforts to show it is on top of the crisis.

(Additional reporting by Kristin Hays in Houston, and Steve Holland and Tim Gardner in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

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