The Transocean Development Driller III, foreground, which is drilling the primary relief well, and the Helix Q4000, background, are seen at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico, Monday, July 26, 2010. Photo / AP.

The Transocean Development Driller III, foreground, which is drilling the primary relief well, and the Helix Q4000, background, are seen at the Deepwater Horizon oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico, Monday, July 26, 2010. Photo / AP.

NEW ORLEANS: Preparations for step one of a two-step attempt to plug the blown-out Gulf oil well are going well and it could start this weekend, the Government's point man for the spill response said yesterday.

The so-called static kill is intended to make the job of plugging the well for good easier, and it can begin as soon as crews finish work on the relief well needed for a permanent fix.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said crews were to drop in the casing for the relief well yesterday, and that could speed up work on the static kill. He previously said it would begin on Monday or Tuesday.

Crews will pump heavy mud down the well though a temporary cap and a failed piece of equipment called a blowout preventer. If the well casing is intact, the mud will force the oil back down into the natural petroleum reservoir. Then workers will pump in cement to seal it.

The static kill is on track for completion some time next week. Then comes the bottom kill, where the relief well will be used to pump in mud and cement. That process will take days or weeks, depending on whether the static kill works.

Allen said he had a very frank and open discussion with local officials concerned that the Coast Guard and BP would pull back from the spill response once the oil was stopped permanently.

He said they would work together to come up with a plan by next week for how to clean up any oil that might continue washing up on beaches and in wetlands.

The temporary cap has held in the oil for the last two weeks, and Allen said crews were having trouble finding patches of the crude that had been washing up since the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded. No one is sure how much oil might still be lurking below the surface. Most of what was coming ashore has broken up or been sucked up by skimming boats or burned.

- AP