USA - BP says the replacement of the new cap on its damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico has yielded encouraging results with the US assessing the new development as "good news."

"The current monitoring that we're doing shows no negative evidence," AFP quoted Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, as saying on Friday.

"In terms of the integrity testing, it continues, pressure continues to rise, it's currently over 6,700 psi (pounds per square inch), which is consistent with BP's engineering analysis," he added.

"We're encouraged by those results."

The London-based oil giant will go on testing the containment cap for the next two days to see if it can hold back the gushing oil.

"We've said if it didn't get above 6,000 pounds then it was obvious that there was absolutely no integrity and we also said that if it got above 8,000 pounds then it was absolutely obvious that there was complete integrity," Well said.

"Between those ranges it could mean that there's integrity, it could mean that there's not integrity. That's where the detailed analysis etc. has to take place."

Earlier, US President Barack Obama, describing the temporary halt of the oil leak as "good news," but warned that it was not a final solution to the spill, which has caused America's worst ever environmental disaster.

"It is important that we don't get ahead of ourselves," Obama told reporters at the White House.

According to BP engineers, the spill will not be completely sealed before mid-August, when two relief wells are drilled. BP engineers are going to use these wells to fill the ruptured wellbore with cement, to kill the oil flow from a huge undersea reservoir.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig operated by BP sank few days after an April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers.

The ruptured well has been spewing millions of gallons of oil into the sea over the past 88 days.

RB/MMN

originally published in Press TV