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BP said they had removed the containment cap from the well on Thursday
BP has removed the blowout preventer that should have stopped oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico when a drilling rig exploded in April.
The 300-ton device will be examined as part of the inquiry into the leak of 206m gallons of oil into the Gulf.
The company said it had spent $8bn (£5.2bn) in clean-up costs and compensation to Gulf residents.
Meanwhile, BP have said a ban on offshore oil drilling may impede its ability to pay for the damage.
</div> On Friday, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the US government's incident commander, said the blowout preventer was being lifted to the surface.
The device failed when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April, killing 11 workers and touching off one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
The company has pledged $20bn to compensate Gulf residents harmed by the spill, and has pledged millions more to study the spill's environmental impact and to promote tourism in the Gulf Coast states affected by the spill.
But company officials have said the moratorium on offshore oil drilling, put into place by the Obama administration, had harmed its cash flow.
"If we are unable to keep those fields going, that is going to have a substantial impact on our cash flow," David Nagel, executive vice-president for BP America, told the New York Times.
The moratorium "makes it harder for us to fund things, fund these programmes."
Meanwhile, plans to seal the well permanently were progressing well, BP said.
The final sealing of the well is now expected to be completed later this month.
BP said the capping stack placed on top of the well in July was removed on Thursday.
The company will replace the faulty blowout preventer with a new one straight away, in order to minimise the time the well is exposed to the sea, the company said.
This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
BP said they had removed the containment cap from the well on Thursday BP has removed the blowout preventer that should have stopped oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico when a drilling rig exploded in April.
The 300-ton device will be examined as part of the inquiry into the leak of 206m gallons of oil into the Gulf.
The company said it had spent $8bn (£5.2bn) in clean-up costs and compensation to Gulf residents.
Meanwhile, BP have said a ban on offshore oil drilling may impede its ability to pay for the damage.
</div> On Friday, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the US government's incident commander, said the blowout preventer was being lifted to the surface.
The device failed when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April, killing 11 workers and touching off one of the worst environmental disasters in history.
The company has pledged $20bn to compensate Gulf residents harmed by the spill, and has pledged millions more to study the spill's environmental impact and to promote tourism in the Gulf Coast states affected by the spill.
“If we are unable to keep those fields going, that is going to have a substantial impact on our cash flow”
David Nagel BP America executive "If we are unable to keep those fields going, that is going to have a substantial impact on our cash flow," David Nagel, executive vice-president for BP America, told the New York Times.
The moratorium "makes it harder for us to fund things, fund these programmes."
Meanwhile, plans to seal the well permanently were progressing well, BP said.
The final sealing of the well is now expected to be completed later this month.
BP said the capping stack placed on top of the well in July was removed on Thursday.
The company will replace the faulty blowout preventer with a new one straight away, in order to minimise the time the well is exposed to the sea, the company said.
This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.