BP: 'Static Kill' Is Working

The "static kill" attempt to seal off its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico appears to have been a success, BP says. The procedure, which involved pumping heavy drilling mud into the mouth of the well, reached "the desired outcome," and the mud is keeping the oil down, the company said in a statement. BP is monitoring the situation and continuing work on a relief well, the BBC reports.

The operation was "textbook. It went exactly as we would have expected," a BP exec told CNN, adding that the firm's engineers won't decide whether or not to follow the mud with cement until after the relief well is completed next week. "I think all of our hopes and aspirations are that this thing will come to an end," said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "It's been an agonizing period for the people of the Gulf and the United States." (More Deepwater Horizon stories.)