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Friday, September 17, 2010  A relief well drilled nearly 2.5 miles beneath the floor of the Gulf of Mexico intersected BP's blown-out well, a prelude to permanently killing it, the U.S government said late Thursday.

Friday, August 13, 2010  BP's blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is not yet plugged for good, and work on what's been touted as the permanent solution will need to continue, the federal government said Friday.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010  Approaching storms forced crews to suspend drilling the final stretch of a relief well aimed at shooting a permanent underground plug into BP's busted oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Monday, August 09, 2010  Work began during the weekend to finish drilling the well, and company and government officials say they could hit their target as early as Friday.

Monday, August 09, 2010  Engineers plan to intersect the damaged well with a relief well that they're still drilling - 20 to 30 feet at a time. Then they'll be able to pump mud and cement into the bottom of the busted well to completely seal it.

Thursday, August 05, 2010  BP began pumping a steady stream of fresh cement into its blown-out oil well Thursday, hoping to seal for good the ruptured pipe that blew its top months ago and spewed crude into Gulf of Mexico in one of the world's worst spills.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010  UPDATED 3:45 p.m. CDT with AP video. Engineers began pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well Tuesday in what they think is their best chance yet to reach the ultimate goal in a delicate process.

Monday, August 02, 2010  Officials have long insisted that a relief well was the only surefire way to kill the oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but with engineers only feet away from completing a pair of them they're now wrestling with how exactly to use them.

Monday, August 02, 2010  UPDATED 8:20 a.m. CDT. Engineers on the Gulf of Mexico hoped to begin work Monday on a plan to to shove mud and perhaps cement into the blown-out oil well at the seafloor, making it easier to end the gusher for good.

Thursday, July 29, 2010  A procedure intended to ease the job of plugging the blownout Gulf well for good could start as early as the weekend, the government's point man for the spill response said Thursday.

Friday, July 23, 2010  Work to permanently choke off the oil well that had been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico is at a standstill after ships around the site were ordered to evacuate ahead of the approaching Tropical Storm Bonnie.

Thursday, July 22, 2010  A tropical depression is now racing toward the Gulf of Mexico. That's putting pressure on BP and the U.S. government to decide whether to evacuate dozens of ships at the site of the ruptured oil well.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010  The tunnel will be used to blast mud and cement into BP's leaky well, hopefully sealing it off for good. But the threat of a tropical storm has prompted the oil giant to shut off the tunnel to keep it from being damaged.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010  The federal government's spill chief said a relief tunnel should finally reach BP's broken Gulf of Mexico well by the weekend, meaning the three-month-old gusher could be snuffed for good within two weeks.

Friday, July 16, 2010  Engineers, politicians and Gulf residents will watch anxiously over the next day and a half to see if the cap holds. As of Friday morning, no oil could be seen spewing into the Gulf via underwater camera feeds on BP's website.