US president Barack Obama said today that the failure of BP’s latest effort to stop the catastrophic flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was “as enraging as it is heartbreaking”.

BP says it could be tomorrow or later before it knows whether its latest attempt to clog the source of America’s largest oil spill is working.

Engineers were today anxiously waiting to see if their experimental repair attempt on the blown Gulf of Mexico oil rig would succeed.

BP said today everything was going as planned as the oil giant began pumping heavy mud into a leaking Gulf of Mexico well.

Oil giant BP today admitted its failure to plug the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well was frustrating, as it prepared for its next major attempt on the leak.

ENERGY giant BP yesterday said it was capturing about a fifth of the estimated oil gushing from its ruptured undersea Gulf of Mexico well and hoped to try to fully stop the flow later this week.

BP said it was confident its latest experiment using a mile-long pipe would capture much of the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, even as the company admitted yet another setback in the environmental disaster.