Oil Spill: New Attempt to Plug Well With Tube Under Way

A mile-long tube was being put in place Saturday as BP sought to siphon oil from a broken underwater pipeline in the latest attempt to stop the flow of oil fouling the water of the Gulf of Mexico and threatening wildlife, fisheries and beaches.

The oil company had to pull the siphon tube back up Friday night and readjust its connection to a tanker that will collect the oil at the surface if the fix works, the Associated Press said. The tube was then sent back down to be inserted in the pipeline by robotic submarines in the hope that oil can be sucked up through it like a straw. Even if it works, a second smaller well would still be leaking.

Estimates of the oil spilling into the Gulf range from 5,000 barrels a day -- more than 200,000 gallons -- to 70,000 barrels. Some fear the oil spilled could exceed the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989. BP also has at hand a containment box called a "top hat," that could be used in an effort to encase the gushing well,