the period of time, this week mean that they re able to stop the oil using this, possibly. bp says the work, though, to install this new cap is ahead of schedule. that s good news. it could be in place sometime today if everything comes to pass. oil has been gushing freely over the last 48 hours as they remove that old containment cap and put in this onew one. once the smaller, tight-fitting cap is in place, it could contain most if not all of the oil that is spewing out of the broken wellhead. some of the animations here showing what they are going through at this moment as well as the coming day. this is all welcome news. if this were to come to pass, moving that new cap on, that s what we re watching for, because there s 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day spewing out. with this on, it could mitigate that. but even if it works, it s not a final fix. let s go to thad allen, the top government man on this.