BP to use tires and golf balls to clog Gulf oil well

With the U.S. Gulf oil spill now creeping toward the Texas coast and threatening Alabama tourism, BP engineers have tried to control oil gushing from a ruptured well deep in the Gulf of Mexico.

A setback with a huge undersea containment dome fueled fears of a prolonged and growing environmental disaster.

The spill is spreading west, away from Florida, but toward important fishing waters of the Louisiana shoreline, where fishing, shrimping and oyster harvesting bans have widened.

Click link for a graphic: link.reuters.com/xeh23k

BP is exploring several new options to control the spill after a buildup of crystallized gas in the dome forced engineers to delay efforts to place a four-story containment chamber over the rupture on Saturday.

"We're gathering some data to help us with two things. One is another way to do containment, the second is other ways to actually stop the flow," BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said.

At least 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day have been gushing unchecked into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, rupturing the well and killing 11 crew members.

Ecological Disaster:
The spill, which could become the worst in U.S. history, threatens economic and ecological efforts on Gulf Coast tourist beaches, wildlife refuges and fishing grounds. It has forced President Barack Obama to rethink plans to open more waters to drilling.

The disaster could slow the exploration and development of offshore oil projects worldwide, the head of the International Energy Agency warned.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward says it could be weeks or months before the spill is brought under control. He said the company could spend $10 million a day on clean-up efforts.

BP may next try to plug the damaged underwater well by pumping debris into it at high pressure, a technique called a "junk shot," or attaching a new preventer on top of it.

"They are actually going to take a bunch of debris -- some shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that -- and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up to stop the leak," U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told CBS News.

BP also is drilling a relief well to halt the leak but that could take three months.

The spill's only major contact with the shoreline has been in the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana, mostly a wildlife reserve. The next few days threatens wider contact.

Louisiana officials closed more waters to fishing and shrimp and oyster harvesting as the slick edged westward.

Shrimp harvesting is now banned from Freshwater Bayou on the central coast to Louisiana's border with Mississippi. Some oyster beds west of the Mississippi River also are shut.

Seafood is a $2.4 billion industry in Louisiana, which produces more than 30 percent of the seafood originating in the continental United States.

*Information and writing gathered from Reuters article by Erwin Seba