HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc aims to retrieve a failed blowout preventer from its ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday or Wednesday next week, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said on Friday.
The failure of the blowout preventer set off the world's worst offshore oil spill and it will be critical evidence in criminal and civil investigations into the cause of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 men on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Efforts to remove pieces of a drill pipe inside the blowout preventer -- a giant stack of pipes and valves -- have failed this week so the company will move on to recovering the blowout preventer whether or not pipe remnants remain stuck inside, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a briefing in Washington.
