WRAPUP 3-BP tries new oil leak fixes, tar balls wash ashore

BP moves ahead with "top hat" fix, hopes for success

* Company says oil spill has cost $450 million so far

* Spill edging closer to U.S. Gulf Coast shore

* BP shares recover slightly in London (Recasts, adds details, BP statement)

By Steve Gorman

PORT FOURCHON, La., May 13 (Reuters) - Energy giant BP moved forward on Thursday with untested solutions aimed at containing the spreading oil spill from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico that is inching closer to land and threatens an environmental disaster.

BP Plc (BP.L), owner of the well off Louisiana's coast, said it hoped to have a small containment dome in place by late Thursday, its latest attempt to control the roughly 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 liters) per day that is gushing from the broken well.

It is also fighting to salvage its soiled reputation. London-based BP, Transocean Ltd (RIG.N) and Halliburton Co (HAL.N) are all under scrutiny for their roles in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered what could be the largest U.S. oil spill ever.

Scientists say coastal wetlands threatened by the spill, which provide critical habitat for bird life and serve as rich nurseries for the region's valuable shrimp and oyster stocks, are already dwindling from erosion and development.

Oil pollution would accelerate the process by killing the vegetation that holds the marshes together. It threatens regional economic mainstays including fishing and tourism as well as wildlife throughout the region.

"If we allow that oil to come in and touch our marshlands, that'll shut us down for about five to six years," said Rodney Dufrene, 23, a new shrimp boat owner from the hamlet of Cut Off, north of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the oil continued to spread with winds and currents and this week's southeasterly winds could push the oil closer to Breton Sound and the Mississippi Delta.

"Oil observed to the west of the Delta offshore of Timbalier Bay could threaten shorelines as far west as Atchafalaya Bay by late Thursday," NOAA said on its website.

BP, whose shares have tumbled and wiped out $30 billion of market value since the rig fire on April 20, said on Thursday the oil spill had cost it $450 million so far. [ID:nLDE64C0I9] The stock was up slightly by midday in London after weeks of steady drops.

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NO CERTAINTY OF SUCCESS

While troops and volunteers helped with a massive spill response and containment effort, BP pushed forward with a multipronged subsea attempt to control the flow of oil that could be in place as soon as the end of the week.

"All of the techniques being attempted or evaluated to contain the flow of oil on the seabed involve significant uncertainties because they have not been tested in these conditions before," BP cautioned in a news release.

The company is trying to stop the flow through the underwater blowout preventer -- which did not work as it was supposed to after the rig explosion -- and also by placing a "top hat" containment dome over the main leak.

BP engineers have already lowered the top hat to the seabed and are hoping to start capturing oil by late Thursday.

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said on Wednesday the company is studying whether to try just positioning the top hat over the leak or inserting a tube directly into the existing equipment. Both methods would involve siphoning the crude to a tanker.

The company is not guaranteeing success, citing the difficulties of working almost a mile (1.6 km) under the ocean surface. A buildup of slushy gas hydrates stymied its first attempt at covering the rupture with a huge metal dome.

Crews also began drilling a relief well 10 days ago, but that is expected to take about three months to complete.

GOOEY TAR BALLS

As the undersea effort goes on, signs of the oil have begun to show up on land.

At Port Fourchon, the tip of southeastern Louisiana's La Fourche Parish and the main supply harbor for the Gulf's deepwater oil and gas industry, gooey, rust-colored globules were found washed up on a beach around sunset on Wednesday with more seen early on Thursday.

A sample of the blobs, recovered by a Reuters reporter, was collected by harbor police for testing to determine whether the substance came from the oil spill. Officers who took the sample refused to speculate on its origins.

Cleanup crews have found oil ashore at Whiskey Island in Louisiana's Terrebonne Bay, west of the Mississippi Delta. Crude has also been found at the Chandeleur Islands and Port Eads in the state, as well as on Alabama's Dauphin Island.

Tar balls that washed up on Dauphin Island beaches on Saturday have been tested and appear to be from the oil spill.

A chemical assessment from Louisiana State University's environmental sciences department said the tar balls are a "high probability match" to the oil spill, the Deepwater Horizon information center said in a news release.

'THIS IS NOT A SPRINT. IT'S A MARATHON'

In Alabama, another of the four states in the Gulf area affected by the spill, state Attorney General Troy King met with residents late on Wednesday to discuss how they could file damage claims against BP for verifiable loss of income.

He said about 1,975 Alabama claims had been filed, worth about $600,000 in payments, and he knew of none that had been rejected so far.

"This is not a sprint. It's a marathon, and we're talking months or years, to sort everything out. It is our job to be certain the commitment (from BP) that is strong now cannot be allowed to weaken later," he said. BP has said it will pay all "legitimate claims" for damages.

"This is an unprecedented disaster and an unprecedented response. There is no template for this," King said.

In two days of hearings on Capitol Hill, the oil company executives were criticized for failing to fix problems with the blowout preventer.

An investigation by a House of Representatives panel showed the Deepwater Horizon rig's underwater blowout preventer leaked and was not powerful enough to cut off the oil flow before the rig blew up. [ID:nN12189610]

Democratic Representative Henry Waxman, quoting from a BP document describing its view of events, said the well failed a pressure test in the hours before the blast.

Nearly 100 lawsuits have already been filed across the Gulf region and the disaster, which lawyers see becoming one of the biggest class actions in U.S. history, involves billions of dollars in potential liabilities. [ID:nN12191570]

So far, 87 sea turtles, 18 birds and six dolphins have been found dead, officials said. Scientists are testing to determine if the oil spill killed them, or if they died of other causes. (Additional reporting by Kelli Dugan in Mobile, Alabama, Tom Brown in Miami, Victoria Bryan in London; Writing by Deborah Charles and Ed Stoddard; Editing by Eric Beech)

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