"Yesterday we retrieved the yellow pod, the brain of the blowout preventer, we are reworking it and hope to rewire it and allow us to read pressures," Suttles said during an evening press conference to update on efforts to halt the estimated 5,000 b/d flow of crude oil from the Macondo well in 4,993 feet of water.

He also said that depth figure for the relief well includes the water. "It is measured from the drilling platform," said Suttles.

The original Macondo exploration well suffered an April 20 blowout after reaching a total depth of 18,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, about 40 miles from Venice, Louisiana.

Suttles has said BP plans to drill the relief well to an equal depth and predicted again this operation might take as long as 90 days.

In the meantime, Suttles said BP continues to consider more short-term means to stem the flow, including the retrieval of the "brain" from the malfunctioning blowout preventer.

He said the company's plan to deploy a containment dome around the wellhead also is under way, with the structure expected to be lowered over the well during the night.

In addition, Suttles revealed two other ideas under consideration: installation of a new valve or blowout preventer over the malfunctioning unit and use of a line to inject materials that would stop the flow.

"We didn't want to take action to make the spill worse," said Suttles, noting that BP is considering these actions carefully.

Citing the significance of recovering the "brain," he said it could be used for "gathering pressure data from inside the blowout preventer" if they can rewire it.

Also during the conference, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry said the Coast Guard has not yet decided whether to allow BP to launch application of subsea dispersants on a wider scale than the two tests BP already has conducted.

"It is being carefully evaluated and we have not made a decision to proceed at this time,"

Landry said. Landry also confirmed that the oil spill from the Macondo blowout made its first landfall Thursday at Louisiana's Chandeleur Islands, south of Biloxi, Mississippi, and just east of the Louisiana coast.

"We are starting to see the first impact of oil from this event," she said.

Eleven of 126 workers are missing and presumed dead from the blowout that also destroyed Transocean's semisubmersible Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

--Gary Taylor, gary_taylor@Platts.com