Support vessels surround the Discoverer Enterprise Ship at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 50 miles South East of the mouth of the Mississippi River
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burning after the explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on April 21, off the southeast tip of Louisiana
In an image made from video provided by BP PLC shows oil continues to erupt from the remains of their oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico today
Pithy opinion: A sign left by the side of the road near Grand Isle, Louisiana
A roadside sign expresses resentment towards British Petroleum (BP) and U.S. President Barack Obama over the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, in Grand Isle
BP was preparing for more stock market turbulence last night over its latest plan to cap the oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
White House officials said the new operation could cause further environmental devastation.
Drilling experts claimed the risky operation could result in 20 per cent more oil gushing into the ocean.
With the markets in London and New York opening this morning after a three-day holiday weekend, fears were growing that BP shares could slide further over its failure to stop the spill.
It has been described as the worst in U.S. history.
Oil Booms are seen in background as BP CEO Tony Hayward talks to reporters as he visits a Coast Guard command centre
Workers contracted to clean the beach patrol the coastline in Grand Isle, Louisiana. With BP's failure to stop the flow of oil, residents of the Gulf Coast are growing increasingly frustrated
Carol Browner, White House Energy Adviser, appears on the US TV show 'Meet the Press' yesterday. Oil could gush into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP rig until August, she admitted
Oil inside the booms that were supposed to protect the fragile marsh and wetlands from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at Pass A Loutre, Louisiana
The British oil giant's German-listed stocks closed 6.8 per cent down in Frankfurt yesterday.
The group has already lost a quarter of its market value - or almost £30billion - since the oil rig explosion on April 20 that claimed 11 lives and triggered the crisis.
That fall came before the weekend failure of its 'top kill' bid to plug the well by pumping mud and debris into the leaking pipe and before claims that the leak was unlikely to be completely shut off for another three months.
On Friday BP shares fell 5 per cent in London to close at 494.8 pence.
Shareholders are worried about the eventual cost of the catastrophe.
So far, the cost is estimated to be around £690million, but if BP is not able to shut down the leak until August, this could spiral to more than £2billion.
The company was planning to sever the leaking pipeline late last night or today using undersea robots with a diamond-rimmed saw.
It will then try to fit a valve over it, together with a new pipe to siphon the oil to a ship. The operation is likely to take up to a week. But this is unlikely to prevent all oil from escaping.
White House energy adviser Carol Browner said the operation could result in a temporary 20 per cent increase in oil flow. BP said it does not expect a significant increase in oil flow from plan.
By cutting the pipe BP is hoping to get easier access to fit a containment device. But a fortnight ago an attempt to fit a dome failed dismally and environmentalists fear the worst.
Behind the announcement yesterday that BP was launching a fifth operation to try to deal with the crisis was the admission that containment and clean-up of the oil was now the focus rather than shutting off the leak altogether.
Mrs Browner said: 'We're now going to move into a situation where they're going to attempt to control the oil that's coming out, move it to a vessel, take it onshore.'
The Obama administration and BP bosses believe the only sure solution left is relief wells, which should eventually be completed in August and should allow engineers to install cement plugs.
After his visit to the threatened region on Friday, President Barack Obama ordered that the clean-up operation be tripled in size.
But Gulf residents have been warned that the spilled oil could be whipped further inshore by what may be the most active storm season since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
That deadly storm proved a political disaster for President George Bush, who was accused of complacency in handling it.
Carol Terrebonne, a wholesale retailer who buys shrimp off the boats in southern Louisiana, laughs when asked about the $5,000 hardship payout she has received from energy giant BP to cushion the economic impact of the Gulf oil spill.
'It barely pays the power bill. I have two facilities and they have ice machines and cold storage,' she said in her cramped roadside office, seated beneath pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
As of Sunday, BP said 26,000 claims had been filed by commercial fishermen, angling guides and others who say they have lost income because of the six-week-old spill, which the White House says is probably the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Of those claims, 11,650 had been paid for a total of $35 million. Analysts say the British-based company, whose reputation and market value have been battered by the spill, faces billions of dollars in cleanup costs and damages claims.
As local fishermen rue the season that got away, BP says it is ready to pay more in their individual claims, but for now it is focused on what it calls 'hardship payments' to help mitigate immediate loss of income.
'If they need more they can come back to us. These immediate hardship claims do not preclude the longer-term claims,' said BP spokesman David Nicholas.
But anger over the process is mounting on several fronts in steamy bayou villages where shrimp boats sit idle and sports fishing guides while their extra time away in bars.
The anger focuses first on the amounts paid out so far, which many locals say is hardly enough to pay bills and make ends meet. Several locals who spoke to Reuters had received $5,000, but others said they had been given less.
'My understanding is that if you are a captain/guide and own a boat, you get $5,000, but if you are just a captain or just own a boat you get $2,500,' said sport angling guide Alec Griffin, who specializes in fly fishing.
'I own the boat but it's still registered in the name of my friend who I bought it from, so I just got $2,500. It just helps to ease the sting from canceled trips,' he said.
Many locals are also upset that they have to present tax documentation and paperwork to show their income over the previous three years as a way to assess their losses in 2010.
The recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the economic recession and record-high fuel prices mean that the past few years have been lean ones for many.
Others have also only been working in their current occupations for a year, making it difficult to estimate income loss for this season.
Many were banking on this year as the 'big one' as the economy recovers from recession. And for a number of reasons -- the lack of serious storms last year, the amount of winter rainfall -- fishing conditions this year looked superb.
'It would have been a good summer; the marsh was in good shape, there was lots of clean water,' said Griffin.
In the New Orleans suburb of Belle Chasse, oysterman Kuzma Tesvich said he had had high hopes for 2010.
'Our crop was good. We expected a good season and a good year but after all this we don't know what's going to happen to our oysters out there in the water,' he said.
He said he had received his $5,000 from BP but said he was making $2,000 a day before the spill closed down his 1,500-acre (600-hectare) oyster operation.
BP has said it is aware that recent years' earnings are below what some people could reasonably have expected to make this year. Last week, it said it would appoint an independent mediator to settle any disputes over claims that arise.
It has also said it will be flexible with people who don't have all of their paperwork in order.
Hundreds of Gulf Coast fishermen are also being paid by BP to help with its oil spill containment operations, which also clearly helps bridge some of the the lost earnings gap.
But the notion of handouts is alien to the resilient people here, many of whom have a strong sense of independence.
'These people are self-employed, they are not used to being reduced to handouts and to looking for help,' said Father Gerry, the Catholic priest in the bayou town of Port Sulphur.
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