Ambitious Effort Begins to Contain All Spill Oil

The new containment cap BP is installing is outfitted with devices that can be used to control oil flow from the leaking well.

NEW ORLEANS — Crews removed a cap from atop BP’s out-of-control well in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, beginning an ambitious engineering effort that could fully contain the huge oil leak but will also make matters worse, at least temporarily.

Oil is pictured leaking during the early phase of “top hat” removal operations at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico, in this frame grab captured from a BP live video feed on Saturday.

Live video showed the cap, which had been diverting 15,000 barrels of oil a day to a ship on the surface, being lifted off the well at the seabed. As the cap was moved away, oil gushed anew from the well.

Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president in charge of the effort, said a tighter-sealing cap would be installed by the middle of this week. “At this point, we’re on plan,” he said, speaking at a briefing in Houston