BP hopes to cap oil pipe in next 24 hours

PORT FOURCHON: BP hopes to place a cap on a fractured oil pipe and contain the Gulf of Mexico spill within the next 24 hours, a top company official said on Tuesday.

"If everything goes well, within the next 24 hours, we could have this contained," BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters in Louisiana.

The operation -- dubbed a lower marine riser pipe -- to cut off the leaking pipe and seal it with a tight cap was launched Tuesday, earlier than the timetable set at the weekend by BP after an earlier bid to stop the leak failed.