Well on verge of being plugged

NEW ORLEANS (AP):

After five months, the oil well that had spewed millions of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico is on the verge of being plugged once and for all.

A relief well drilled nearly 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) beneath the floor of the Gulf of Mexico intersected BP's blown-out well, a prelude to permanently killing it, the US government said late Thursday.

Retired Coast Guard Adm Thad Allen, the government's point man on the oil spill, said in a statement that data shows the two wells are joined. The next step will be to pump mud and cement down through the relief well to seal the ruptured well from the bottom.

According to the government, the final seal should happen by Sunday, five agonising months after an explosion killed 11 workers, sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in US history. But BP said Friday in a statement that it expected the well to be completely sealed today.

"I am ready for that cigar now," John Wright, who led the team drilling the relief well, said in an email Friday to The Associated Press from aboard the Development Driller III vessel.

Wright, who is not a BP employee but is working on a contract basis, had told the AP in August that he was looking forward to finishing his mission and celebrating with a cigar, a dinner party with his crew and a trip somewhere quiet to unwind with his wife.

The gusher was contained in mid-July after a temporary cap was successfully fitted atop the well.