“The top hat has been lowered to the seabed but obviously it will take some time to connect the various pipes and risers,” a BP spokeswoman told Upstream, countering media reports that it had already been placed over the main leak point.

Subsea efforts in recent days continued to focus on two fronts — firstly, reducing the oil flow by containment and then trying to halt the flow using a “top kill” ­option.

Further