U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday a new cap that has stopped oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) broken well is "good news," but warned the public not to "get ahead of ourselves" and believe the well is completely sealed.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday a new cap that has stopped oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP PLC's (BP, BP.LN) broken well is "good news," but warned the public not to "get ahead of ourselves" and believe the well is completely sealed.

"Everybody feels like we're done -- and we're not," Obama said in remarks in the Rose Garden. Scientists are still working to ensure that "by putting this cap on, the oil isn't seeping out elsewhere in ways that could be even more catastrophic," Obama said.

The remarks came about 20 hours into a test that could show whether a recently placed cap could stop the oil leak while efforts to plug the well permanently continue. By Friday morning, pressures on the cap were steadily rising, showing that the cap might have the ability to completely shut-in the well, a company vice president said Friday morning.

The test could take up to 48 hours to complete. If the results are ideal, the cap could be used to stop the flow while work resumes on efforts to plug it permanently. More likely, a successful test will enable BP to siphon all the oil from the well to ships on the surface in a controlled manner, eliminating leaks until the permanent fix is made.

Obama said that the new cap would allow BP to contain 80,000 barrels of oil a day -- accommodating almost all the oil leaking out.

"Even if it turns out that we can't maintain this cap and completely shut off the flow of oil, what the new cap allows us to do is to essentially attach many more containment mechanisms so that we're able to take more oil up to the surface, put it on ships, (and) it won't be spilling into the Gulf," Obama said.

He said that "we won't be done until we actually know that we've killed the well and that we have a permanent solution in place. We're moving in that direction, but I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves."

He also said that "we've still got a big job to do" to deal with the cleanup and to compensate businesses and other people harmed by the spill.

"People down in the Gulf, particularly businesses, are still suffering as a consequence of this disaster," Obama said. He said that "we are making steady progress" and the American people should "take some heart" over the progress.

BP "is going to be paying for the damage it has caused," Obama reiterated.

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