BP today said a four-storey steel box designed to collect crude leaking from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico has arrived on location and is ready to be deployed, as the first oil from the disaster washed ashore in Louisiana.
The 15-metre containment dome will be lowered to the seabed and connected to a vessel on the surface, the London-based company said in a statement today.
"Once this operation is complete it will be possible to assess the effectiveness of the solution."
The oil slick reached the southeastern Chandeleur Islands of Louisiana yesterday, according to the US coast guard.
The blaze that engulfed and destroyed the BP-leased rig last month, causing the deaths of 11 crew, has raised concerns about the future of offshore drilling.
The US interior department delayed public meetings in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina as it reviews "safety issues."
Weighing almost 100 tons, the underwater box will attempt to capture 85 per cent of the oil escaping from two remaining leaks.
The dome "was going to be lowered last night, but it hasn't been yet," BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams said, declining to give a reason for the holdup. "The idea is to get it down later today."
BP hopes the device will be working by May 10th.
Surpass Valdez Oil has been gushing at an estimated rate of 5,000 barrels a day from the well, roughly 60km off the southeastern tip of Louisiana.
The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20th and sank two days later, causing oil leaks about 1,500 metres below the sea surface.
By the third week of June, the leak could surpass the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. About 30,000 barrels of oil-water have been collected so far, BP said today.
More than 260 vessels, including skimmers, tugs, barges and other recovery vessels are being used, the company said, as well as underwater remote-controlled vehicles.
BP plans to circulate warm surface water and antifreeze around the pipe to prevent clogging. Oil leaking from the well could surge to 60,000 barrels a day if plans to cap it with the containment dome fail, representative Edward Markey said earlier this week.
The Port of New Orleans said improving conditions are predicted over the next 72 hours at the Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel into the Mississippi River.
There are no restrictions on the river and customers are not diverting ships, the port said in a statement on its website.
Bloomberg