During a technical briefing updating the company's effort to contain its runaway Macondo exploration well in the Gulf of Mexico, Suttles said the Helix Producer containment option encountered some problems Sunday that delayed its installation.

But BP has corrected those issues and now expects to have the system operating at the Macondo well site before the end of the day.

The Helix Producer system is the third containment option connected to Macondo and BP has said it has the capacity to collect as much as 25,000 b/d when it reaches full operation.

"The Helix Producer encountered two problems that created some delay," Suttles said, citing issues with a hydraulic control line for a valve and a leak.

He said those problems have delayed the the start of the Helix Producer's containment by about a day.

Suttles also confirmed earlier comments from National Incident Commander Thad Allen predicting that BP's new sealing cap could be in place later Monday.

Suttles said that once the new cap is in place, engineers will run pressure tests to determine whether the Macondo wellbore has sufficient integrity to allow the company to use the new cap to stop the well flow, or whether BP will have to continue with its multiple containment options that involve siphoning oil from the leaking well.

But he said that in either event, BP will continue to drill a relief well that is hopes will finally "kill" the well from the bottom. The relief well is not expected to be completed until sometime next month.

BP's primary relief well has reached a depth of 17,840 feet, including 4,993 feet of water, and Suttles said he expects its casing operation to begin this weekend.

Meanwhile, a second backup relief well has reached a depth of 15,874 feet and will be halted there unless the primary relief well fails to intercept Macondo, Suttles said.

"We remain on track to have the cap in place in the four-to-seven-day time frame," said Suttles, summarizing the multiple operations under way since Saturday. "We are on day three, and later today we'll begin on the Helix Producer."

BP's dual containment system had been diverting an average of 25,000 b/d since its installation in June.

But BP removed its primary containment cap Saturday, losing about 15,000 b/d of that diversion while working to install the new sealing cap that could either close the well or boost containment to as high as 80,000 b/d.

A government panel has estimated Macondo's total leak at a range of 35,000 to 60,000 b/d.

Once BP has its replacement sealing cap in place, Suttles said the Macondo oil flow is projected to stop while engineers make pressure readings over a 48-hour period before deciding on the next step in the containment effort.

"Until the job is complete, we have to recognize this is a complex operation," Suttles said.

But he said his "confidence is growing" following Sunday's successful installation of a transition spool as the foundation piece for its planned replacement sealing cap device.

Macondo has been leaking since an April 20 blowout that destroyed Transocean's Deepwater Horizon drilling and created the largest marine oil spill in US history, threatening the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana.

--Gary Taylor, gary_taylor@platts.com