METAIRIE, La. &#8212 BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears Thursday in the latest bid to

curtail the worst spill in U.S. history, but the cut was jagged, and placing a cap over the

gusher will now be more challenging, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said

BP turned to the shears after a diamond-tipped saw became stuck in the pipe halfway through

the job, yet another frustrating delay in six weeks of the Gulf of Mexico spill

President Obama, meanwhile, plans his third visit to the region today

Live video Thursday night showed that an inverted funnel-like cap slightly wider than a

pipe was being maneuvered into place over the oil spewing from the busted well. However, the

gushing oil made it very difficult to tell if the cap was fitting well. BP officials did not

immediately return requests to comment

A rubber seal on the inside will attempt to keep oil from escaping, though engineers

acknowledge some crude will still come out

&#8220We&#8217ll have to see when we get the containment cap on it just how effective it

is,&#8221 said Allen, the government&#8217s point man for the disaster. &#8220It will be a

test and adapt phase as we move ahead, but it&#8217s a significant step forward.&#8221



It won&#8217t be known how much oil BP can siphon to a tanker on the surface until the cap

is fitted, but the irregular cut means it won&#8217t fit as snug as officials had hoped

Even if it works, BP engineers expect oil to continue leaking into the ocean

The next chance to stop the flow won&#8217t come until two relief wells meant to plug the

reservoir for good are finished in August

This latest attempt to control the spill, the so-called cut-and-cap method, is considered

risky because slicing away a section of the 20-inch-wide riser could remove kinks in the pipe

and temporarily increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent. Allen said it was unclear

whether the flow had increased

BP&#8217s top executive acknowledged Thursday the global oil giant was unprepared to fight

a catastrophic deepwater oil spill. Chief Executive Tony Hayward told the Financial Times it

was &#8220an entirely fair criticism&#8221 to say the company had not been fully prepared for

a deepwater oil leak. He called it &#8220low-probability, high-impact&#8221 accident

&#8220What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your

tool kit,&#8221 Hayward said in an interview published in Thursday&#8217s edition of the

London-based newspaper

Oil drifted six miles from the Florida Panhandle&#8217s popular sugar-white beaches, and

crews on the mainland were doing everything possible to limit the catastrophe

The Coast Guard&#8217s Allen directed BP to pay for five additional sand barrier projects

in Louisiana. BP said Thursday the project will cost it about $360 million, on top of about

$990 million it had spent on response and clean up, grants to four Gulf Coast states and

claims from people and companies hurt by the spill

As the slick drifted toward Pensacola&#8217s beaches, emergency workers rushed to link the

last in a miles-long chain of booms designed to fend off the oil. They were slowed by

thunderstorms and wind before the weather cleared in the afternoon

Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by todayFriday, threatening a delicate

network of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major

tourist destination dubbed the Redneck Riviera

The effect on wildlife has grown, too

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported 522 dead birds &#8212 at least 38 of them oiled

&#8212 along the Gulf Coast states, and more than 80 oiled birds have been rescued. It&#8217s

not clear exactly how many of the deaths can be attributed to the spill

As the oil drifted closer to Florida, beachgoers in Pensacola waded into the gentle waves,

cast fishing lines and sunbathed, even as a two-man crew took water samples. One of the men

said they were hired by BP to collect samples to be analyzed for tar and other pollutants

A few feet away, Martha Feinstein, 65, of Milton, Fla., pondered the fate of the beach she

has been visiting for years. &#8220You sit on the edge of your seat and you wonder where

it&#8217s going,&#8221 she said. &#8220It&#8217s the saddest thing.&#8221



Florida&#8217s beaches play a crucial role in the state&#8217s tourism industry. At least

60 percent of vacation spending in the state during 2008 was in beachfront cities. Worried

that reports of oil would scare tourists away, state officials are promoting interactive Web

maps and Twitter feeds to show travelers &#8212 particularly those from overseas &#8212 how

large the state is and how distant their destinations may be from the spill

In other developments:



•The White House said the federal government sent BP a $69 million bill Thursday for

costs so far because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Spokesman Robert Gibbs says the bill is

the first to be sent to BP

•Obama said Thursday that he was &#8220furious&#8221 about the situation in the Gulf

of Mexico and that BP hasn&#8217t moved fast enough to respond to the oil spill. The president

said in an interview for broadcast on CNN&#8217s &#8220Larry King Live&#8221 that BP has felt

his anger &#8212 although he said &#8220venting and yelling at people&#8221 won&#8217t solve

the problem

The White House said Obama will return to Louisiana today. Details were still being worked

out. A spokesman said Obama will likely meet with governors of the affected states, local

business leaders and Allen

•Newly disclosed Coast Guard documents warned that 336,000 gallons per day of oil could

spew into the Gulf of Mexico if an underwater well had a complete blowout

•Coast Guard logs show the prediction came a day after the rig exploded on April 20,

triggering the worst oil spill in the nation&#8217s history from that well

The well didn&#8217t have such a failure. But the volume turned out to be much closer to

that figure than the 42,000 gallons per day that BP first estimated. Weeks later that was

revised to 210,000 gallons

•BP launched an advertising campaign to apologize for its massive contamination

&#8220The gulf spill is a tragedy that never should have happened,&#8221 Hayward says in TV

commercials that began airing on national television Thursday

&#8220BP has taken full responsibility for cleaning up the spill in the gulf,&#8221 he

says

&#8220We&#8217ve helped organize the largest environmental response in this country&#8217s

history.&#8221