Relief well still on target, BP says

BP says its tests show it's on schedule for mid-August completion of a relief well in the Gulf, which is considered the best hope of stopping the oil that's been gushing since April.

The crew drilling the first of two wells ran a procedure this week to confirm it is on the correct path, spokesman Bill Salvin said, according to The Associated Press:

"The layman's translation is, 'We are where we thought we were,'" he said.

Several such tests are needed to determine the relief well's location relative to the well that blew out April 20 when the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded. Once the new well intersects the blown-out one, BP plans to pump heavy drilling mud in to stop the oil flow and plug it with cement.

Salvin said the relief well should be done by mid-August, but that didn't seem to help the company's stock price, which plunged following the company's announcement that the price tag for the response has risen to $2.35 billion.