MOBILE, Ala. -- BP Tuesday refuted an executive who said Monday morning the company has significantly cut the flow of oil leaking from its damaged Deepwater Horizon rig on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor.

Jeff Childs, a deputy incident commander for BP, said in a briefing with Alabama officials that the company successfully shut a set of hydraulic shears known as annular rams, helping to clamp the ruptured pipe and block the leaking oil.

"We've significantly cut the flow through the pipe," Childs said at the Mobile briefing hosted by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa.

Shelby said the development was good news for the Gulf Coast.

"If we can stop that oil from pumping, or even slow it down, that's a big step," Shelby said.

By Monday afternoon, however, BP had released a statement saying the oil flow remained unchanged.



"

BP would like to clarify that, contrary to some media reports, the actions it has taken to date on the blow out preventer have not resulted in any observed reduction in the rate of flow of oil from the MC252 well,

" the statement said.



Childs said the company was still trying to activate a set of shear rams that are designed to seal the well by shearing off the drill pipe. The job is complicated, he said, because it is occurring at depths of more than 5,000 feet.

Childs' statement came after BP chief executive Tony Hayward

that chemical dispersants being injected into the oil flow near the spill source have worked to some degree to keep oil from flowing to the surface, though he did not elaborate.

Officials also said as BP is preparing a system never tried nearly a mile under water to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well a mile under Gulf of Mexico waters.



BP officials said they hope the system could collect as much as 85 percent of oil rising from the seafloor.



The plan to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes being built to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface will need at least another six to eight days to get it in place, with weather also a factor.

(Updated at 3:18 p.m. with BP statement saying the flow of oil has remained unchanged.)

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