BP 'more comfortable' about oil well plug

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.

Kent Wells, BP vice-president, said that engineers monitoring an array of pressure, temperature, sonar and other sensors are seeing no evidence of oil escaping into the water or the sea floor.