By Kristen Hays and Matt Scuffham
HOUSTON/LONDON (Reuters) - BP <:BP.LO:>Plc planned to launch a critical pressure test on its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well on Thursday after a delay to fix a leaking hose, the company said.
BP is trying to test its latest cap to the oil well that could staunch all or most of the gushing flow of crude that has been polluting the ocean and coastline for nearly three months in the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
As the company pushed ahead on the spill control effort, U.S. energy company Apache Corp was moving forward on a possible $10 billion deal for some BP properties, including major assets in Alaska, CNBC reported.
Reports that Apache was seeking $6 billion to $7 billion for the purchase helped extend a rally in BP's U.S. shares, bringing them up 2.8 percent in midday trade.
The top U.S. oil spill official backed away from earlier assurances that the new cap would be used to completely seal the well until relief wells eventually kill it with heavy mud and cement.
Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the cap could possibly shut the well, but might also be used only to block the flow during emergency situations like a hurricane, when BP's surface containment effort would be suspended.
"The intention of the capping stack was never to close in the well per se," Allen told reporters in New Orleans. "The best reason to be able to shut in the well right now ... is it allows us to abandon the site if there is a hurricane."
"We can certainly consider shutting in the well -- that is a possibility and of course we would like to do that."
Thursday's test will show whether the cap can shut off flow if oil-capture vessels at the surface must disconnect.
A leak in a line connected to one of the valves in the capping device was the latest setback for the British company, which has seen its share value plummet and reputation battered since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the spill of millions of gallons of oil.
POLITICAL PRESSURES
U.S. lawmakers, under pressure from citizens angry at the impact the spill is having on their livelihood, are considering a range of new laws that could require tougher safety regulations in offshore drilling or even bar companies like BP from getting new offshore exploration leases.
The U.S. government -- which has vowed to make BP pay for fixing the ruptured well and all cleanup efforts -- told the oil giant that it was responsible for paying all royalties on the oil it is collecting from the ruptured well.
Through its containment systems, BP has collected or burned more than 800,000 barrels of oil, the company has said.
In an issue unrelated to the spill, but illustrating the pressure BP faces in the United States, the company confirmed on Thursday that it had lobbied the UK government over a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya in late 2007.
In August 2009, Britain released a Libyan convicted of blowing up a U.S. plane, angering the United States. Many of the 270 dead in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing were American.
The Gulf spill has soiled hundreds of miles/kilometers of shoreline, shut down about a third of Gulf fisheries and hurt tourism and fishing in all five Gulf states. It has also created problems for President Barack Obama as the government worked to respond to the crisis while area residents struggled financially.
In the latest effort to capture the gushing oil, BP installed a capping device on the well on Monday. The cap is a crucial step toward a multi-vessel oil-capture system that is hurricane-ready and can collect up to 80,000 barrels (3.34 million gallons/12.7 million liters) per day.
That should be more than enough to capture the whole well output, as estimates put the spill rate between 35,000 barrels and 60,000 barrels a day.
The first of two relief wells is expected to be finished by mid-August. The relief wells are considered the only permanent solution to stopping, or killing, the leak.
SHARES RALLY
U.S. shares were up slightly after BP announced it had repaired the leak and would go ahead with the test. They gained more ground on reports of the possible asset deal with Apache.
"There's still hope that this system they're putting in place will actually work, there's hope and there's hype and there's a high probability that it will work," said Ted Parrish of Henssler Equity Fund in Kennesaw, Georgia.
"A buyer of assets today in BP's situation is likely to get a very favorable deal, so Apache is probably working from strength, not weakness." said Robert Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management. "This may be a very good acquisition for them."
BP's shares have been ravaged since the well rupture, with $100 billion in market value being knocked off at one stage, before a three-week rally sparked by takeover talk, speculation about investment by a sovereign wealth fund and hopes that the well would be capped.
Questions over BP's role in lobbying the British government over the release of the Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted in the Lockerbie bombing, also dogged the company.
Some U.S. lawmakers called for an investigation.
Asked if British Prime Minister David Cameron would speak to Obama about it, Cameron's spokesman said, "There's already been contact on the issue of BP and the prime minister and the president agreed that it wouldn't be in anyone's interest to see anything that would undermine the value of BP."
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said no decision had been made about U.S. lawmakers request for an investigation into whether BP had a role in Megrahi's release.
(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in London, Chris Baltimore in Houston, Matthew Lynley in New York and Ayesha Rascoe and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Deborah Charles; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
