Today, BP is lowering a new set of valves down to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, in order to stop the flow from its blown-out Deepwater Horizon well, NPR's Richard Harris reports.
"Installation of the sealing cap is proceeding as planned," BP says.
The valve assembly, which is at the end of a 5,000-foot-long pipe, connected to a ship at the surface, will attach to the top of the damaged blow-out preventer.
Once the valves are in place, BP plans to hook them up to pipes that will carry the oil to the processing ships on the surface.
According to Harris, that process could take a couple of weeks to reach full capacity, but there could be a quicker solution to stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf:
Once the valves are in place, BP will run some tests to see if they can simply close the valves. If they can, they can turn off the gusher at the top of the well.
At th same time, BP is preparing another system that can eventually process 20,000 to 25,000 barrels of oil a day, drawing oil from the side of the blowout preventer.
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