国际英语新闻：BP to publish results of Gulf spill investigation on Wednesday

HOUSTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- BP will release on Wednesday the results of an internal probe into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said Tuesday.

The London-based oil giant said it will post the results of the investigation on its website on Wednesday and later will "issue a further announcement as appropriate."

Over the weekend, BP recovered the failed blowout preventer (BOP) from its ruptured Macondo well, and replaced it with a new BOP. The failed BOP is considered crucial evidence in a separate federal investigation in the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and unleashed the worst spill in the U.S..

The BOP is intended to close off a well if oil or gas uncontrollably rushes to the top. But the Deepwater Horzion BOP failed to do so in the case of the April 20 rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

The replacement of the BOPs also set the stage for BP to resume drilling of the relief well, which BP hopes will intercept the Macondo well annulus and enable a "bottom kill" of the damaged well by mid-September.