Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. BP Begins Pumping Cement into Ruptured Well VOA News 05 August 2010 From left:, Carol Browner, assistant to the President for energy and climate change, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco, and national incident commander of BP oil spill Thad Allen, update reporters at the Whit Photo: AP From left:, Carol Browner, assistant to the President for energy and climate change, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco, and national incident commander of BP oil spill Thad Allen, update reporters at the White House, 04 Aug 2010 Oil company [1]BP says it has begun pumping cement into the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico as part of a strategy to seal the well, more than three months after the ordeal began. In a briefing with reporters Thursday, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said the cementing process will go on throughout the day and into Friday. He said once the cementing is complete, it will virtually assure that oil will no longer leak into the environment. Allen said the completion of the cementing procedure will be a significant milestone, but repeated that he will not consider the ruptured well dead until a relief well is finished and the well is killed from the bottom with additional mud and cement. He said the work on the relief well will begin again after the cement has cured. Allen said work on the relief well was halted during the cementing process to ensure neither operation interfered with the other. He expects the relief well to intercept the original well and the bottom kill to be completed within about 14 days. Thursday's cementing procedure comes after the company pumped mud into the well earlier this week. The underwater well started gushing crude after an oil rig explosion April 20 that killed 11 people. A temporary cap was fitted over the well last month, stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf for the first time since April.  At a White House briefing Wednesday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco gave details of a government study released Wednesday indicating that about 75 percent of the oil spilled into the Gulf has been collected, burned off or broken down by natural forces. But Lubchenco said the environmental impact of the spill is likely to be felt for decades. U.S. scientists estimate that nearly 5 million barrels of oil leaked from the damaged well, making it the largest accidental release of oil into the sea in history.  BP faces about $30 billion in cleanup costs. References 1. http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/html/OceanInterventionROV1.html .