"It feels like someone is pouring cement into my skull".
Workers will pump more mud and cement into the broken well via an adjoining relief well.
Using antiquated pumps as large as truck engines, they drive enormous quantities of liquid cement into the earth.
BP hoped this would halt the flow for long enough for it to pump cement into the shaft, sealing it.
Halliburton said in a statement that it had acted at BP's direction in preparing and injecting cement into the well.
The best solution, he said, is to pump cement into the abandoned shafts, an operation that would cost at least $300m and take more than a year.
Seven masonry crews of five to ten men each carved boulders and cement into a naturalistic poolscape, with elaborate lighting and sound systems.
But Bartlit said BP did not have the results of that test before 19 April, when it ordered work crews to begin pumping cement into the well.
The relief well will be used to pump heavy drilling mud, followed by cement, into the damaged well to stop the gusher permanently.
Such work usually involves injecting cement into a well at several locations, including the top, to prevent any gas remaining in the reservoir from leaking.
After that, they will complete the drilling of a relief well, then plug the blown-out well for good by pumping mud and cement into the bottom.
