Venice, Louisiana: Robot submarines wielding powerful cutting tools went to work on BP's latest bid to curtail the flow of oil from its ruptured wellhead as the US government launched criminal and civil probes into the six-week-old disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The legal steps announced on Tuesday by the Obama administration capped a tough day financially for the British energy company, whose share price was pounded by news of BP's setbacks in stopping the leak over the weekend.
BP has now lost more than a third of its market value since the crisis began, reflecting an increasingly gloomy outlook for the company by energy industry analysts. The oil spill is causing an ecological and economic disaster along the US Gulf Coast.
Moving on from its failed "top kill" attempt to plug up the undersea gusher, BP embarked on a risky new plan to siphon off some of the billowing oil by first cutting away what is left of the leaking riser pipe, then lowering a containment dome over the remaining wellhead assembly.
A source close to the company, speaking on condition of anonymity, said operations to saw through the riser pipe began late on Tuesday. The source did not say how long this process would take.
The strategy was widely seen as offering the last best hope of at least curbing the leak before August, when BP expects to finish drilling two emergency relief wells now considered the only option for actually choking off the oil flow altogether.
