BP: We Cut the Pipe

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says BP has successfully sliced off a pipe in an effort to contain the Gulf oil, but the cut is irregular and placing a cap over the spill will be more challenging. Allen said today that the cap was over the gusher and expected to be lowered in the next couple of hours. This is BP's latest attempt to contain the oil. The best chance to plug the leak is still two months away.

BP hopes to cap the riser pipe and start pumping some crude to a surface tanker, which would reduce but not end the spill. BP's CEO Tony Hayward, meanwhile, acknowledged the global oil giant was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deepwater oil spill. "What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool-kit," Hayward said in an interview published in today's Financial Times.

(More Gulf oil spill stories.)