BP mum on latest oil containment effort

PORT FOURCHON, LA.—British energy giant BP declined to say Saturday whether its latest effort to contain the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill worked, as BP’s chief executive appeared to dismiss the disaster as “tiny.” The accident is threatening an ecological and environmental calamity along the U.S. Gulf Coast. With crude oil gushing unchecked from its blown-out offshore well a mile deep on the floor of the Gulf, London-based BP said on Friday that it was attempting to guide undersea robots to insert a small tube into the 21-inch pipe to funnel the oil to a ship at the surface. BP spokesman Tom Mueller said Saturday morning that he had “nothing to report” about efforts to insert the tube into the pipe, known as the riser. “If there is a huge success there we’d probably call a press conference,” said Mueller, adding that no updates were expected before a previously scheduled news briefing at 2 p.m. …