COLLEEN LONG AND HARRY R. WEBER
Associated Press Writers
NEW ORLEANS – BP engineers working to choke the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico found a leak on a line attached to the side of the new well cap and were trying to fix it Thursday before attempting to stop the crude.
BP said Wednesday evening it had isolated the leak and was repairing it before moving forward. It wasn’t clear how it would affect the timing of the operation, or whether oil continued to be slowly closed off into the cap.
Work started earlier Wednesday after a day-long hiatus to allay government fears that the disaster could be made worse by going forward with the tests to determine whether the temporary cap can withstand the pressure and contain the oil. It was the best hope yet of stopping the crude from streaming into the water for the first time since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 people.