The BP oil leak could be permanently plugged within a fortnight, US experts said today.

BP’s experimental cap is holding as the final hours tick away in a two-day trial run to make sure it keeps oil from pouring into the Gulf of Mexico without blowing a new leak in the busted well, the oil firm said today.

BP was today waiting to see whether the capped-off well which has spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April will hold.

BP tonight finally capped the leak which has spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April.

A pivotal moment in the Gulf oil crisis hit an unexpected snag when officials announced they needed more time before they could begin choking off the geyser of crude at the bottom of the sea.

WITH a tight cap freshly installed on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP planned gradual tests starting last night to see if the device can stop oil from pouring into the sea for the first time in nearly three months.

BP said today it was making progress on what could prove its most effective effort yet to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, but warned that the verdict could be several days away.

Oil was spewing freely into the Gulf of Mexico as BP crews claimed progress yesterday in the first stages of replacing a leaky cap with a new containment system they hope will finally catch all the crude from the busted well.

Robotic submarines working a mile underwater removed a leaking cap from the gushing Gulf oil well, starting a painful trade-off in which more crude will flow into the sea for at least two days until a new seal can be mounted to capture all of it.

BP Plc defended its chief executive yesterday after Russia’s deputy prime minister said he expected Tony Hayward to resign soon, as a strengthening storm threatened efforts to capture more oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

The cap on the blown-out BP well in the Gulf of Mexico is capturing half a million gallons a day – anywhere from a third to three quarters of the oil spewing from the bottom of the sea, officials said today.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama said progress apparently is being made in fighting the enormous Gulf oil spill.

BP engineers finally succeeded in keeping some of the oil gushing from a blown well out of the Gulf of Mexico, hooking up a mile-long tube to funnel it into a tanker after more than three weeks of failures.