SHIPS were getting back in place yesterday at the Gulf of Mexico site of BP’s leaky oil well as crews raced to resume work on plugging the gusher before another big storm stops work again.

Oil giant BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears in the latest bid to curtail the worst oil spill in US history in the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe’s second-largest oil producer, recorded reserves from an Angolan field more than a year before partner BP Plc as the Anglo-Dutch company tried to make up for deteriorating oil and gas holdings.