NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP and the Obama administration offered
significantly differing views Sunday on whether the capped Gulf of
Mexico oil well will have to be reopened, a contradiction that may
be an effort by the oil giant to avoid blame if crude starts
spewing again.

Pilloried for nearly three months as it tried repeatedly to stop
the leak, BP PLC capped the nearly mile-deep well Thursday and
wants to keep it that way. The government's plan, however, is to
eventually pipe oil to the surface, which would ease pressure on
the fragile well but would require up to three more days of oil
spilling into the Gulf.

"No one associated with this whole activity ... wants to see
any more oil flow into the Gulf of Mexico," Doug Suttles, BP's
chief operating officer, said Sunday. "Right now we don't have a
target to return the well to flow."