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By Greg Bluestein and Matt Brown, Associated Press Writers


      COVINGTON, La. (AP) - Oil giant BP is focused on two key areas
around the blown wellhead as it probes the cause of the unchecked
Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the company said as it started to brief
federal authorities on its internal investigation.

      BP PLC said in a release late Monday that it has not reached a
final conclusion. But it said multiple control mechanisms should
have prevented the accident that started with an oil rig explosion
April 20 off the coast of Louisiana.

      The largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf listed seven
mechanisms where its hunt for a cause is focused. Four of those
involve the blowout preventer, a massive piece of machinery that
sits atop the wellhead and is supposed to act as a safety device of
last resort. The other three areas of investigation involve the
cementing and casing of the wellhead.


      Three companies were involved with BP on the well: Transocean
LTD owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the blowout preventer;
Halliburton Inc. was responsible for encasing the well in cement;
and Cameron International Corp. manufactured the blowout preventer.

      President Barack Obama has blasted executives from the companies
for blaming each other during Congressional hearings this month.

      In BP's release, Chief Executive Tony Hayward stopped short of
assigning responsibility, calling the disaster "a complex
accident, caused by an unprecedented combination of failures."

      "A number of companies are involved, including BP, and it is
simply too early - and not up to us - to say who is at fault,"
Hayward said.


      BP said its investigation team has begun sharing its findings
with the U.S. Department of the Interior.


      The Obama administration has come under increasing pressure as
frustrations build with the failure to cap the well. Millions of
gallons of oil stretch across a 150-mile swath from Grand Isle,
La., to Dauphin Island, Ala., endangering wildlife and livelihoods
in commercial fishing and tourism.

      BP said there was still extensive work to do in its
investigation, including examining major pieces of equipment like
the blowout preventer and the rig that are still on the seafloor.

      The internal investigation started the day after the rig
exploded, burned and sank. It is being conducted by BP's Head of
Group Safety and Operations, who has an independent reporting line
to Hayward, the company said.

      In Washington, a report by the Interior Department's inspector
general found ethics violations at the agency that overseas
offshore drilling. The report, which follows up on a 2007
investigation, found that staffers at the Minerals Management
Service accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts
from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view
pornography.

      Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the findings were "deeply
disturbing" and showed the importance of his plan to abolish the
agency and replace it with three new entities.

      The report, which follows up on a 2007 investigation, found that
MMS staffers accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other
gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to
view pornography.

      Salazar said several employees in the report have resigned, were
fired, terminated or referred for prosecution. All the violations
mentioned in the report occurred between 2000 and 2008.

      After butting heads with BP over its use of a chemical to break
up the oil in the water, the Obama administration said Tuesday the
company is complying with the government's request to use less of
the toxic dispersant.

      White House energy adviser Carol Browner said alternative
dispersants aren't so readily available.

      In a letter to BP last week, the Environmental Protection Agency
gave the company three days to find a less toxic alternative to the
dispersant it's using, Corexit 9500. But in a series of meetings
that followed, Browner said, it became clear the alternatives were
not as widely available as needed.

      "There are not as many being manufactured as people thought in
the quantities" needed, Browner said in a round of television
appearances on morning news shows.

      "We need to determine whether or not those alternatives are
available, and the EPA is doing that, but in the meantime, EPA has
directed BP to use less of the dispersants and they're required to
follow that," Browner said.

      A memorial service was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in
Jackson, Miss., for the 11 workers who were killed when the oil rig
exploded. The event was being held by Transocean.

      All of BP's attempts to stop the leak have failed, despite the
oil giant's use of joystick-operated submarine robots that can
operate at depths no human could withstand.


      BP is pinning its hopes of stopping the gusher on yet another
technique never tested 5,000 feet underwater: a "top kill," in
which heavy mud and cement would be shot into the well to plug it
up.

      BP engineers had the equipment in place Tuesday and planned to
start 12 hours of tests to prepare for the maneuver, BP PLC senior
vice president Kent Wells said.


      The top kill has proven successful in aboveground wells in
Kuwait and Iraq, but has never before been tried a mile beneath the
sea. Company executives peg its chances of success at 60 to 70
percent.

      Engineers are working on several other backup plans in case the
top kill doesn't work, including injecting assorted junk into the
well to clog it up, and lowering a new blowout preventer on top of
the one that failed.

      The only certain permanent solution is a pair of relief wells
crews have already started drilling, but the task could take at
least two months.


      Associated Press Writers Erica Werner and Matthew Daly in
Washington and Kevin McGill and Alan Sayre in Louisiana contributed
to this report.

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Oil giant BP is focused on two key areas
around the blown wellhead as it probes the cause of the unchecked
Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the company said as it started to brief
federal authorities on its internal investigation.

BP tells feds key areas probed as Gulf spill cause

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