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WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - BP Plc BP.LBP.N aims for the containment cap placed over the gushing well pipe in the Gulf of Mexico to stop at least 90 percent of the flow of oil spilling into the ocean, a senior official with the British energy giant said on Friday.

“I’d like to see us capture 90 plus percent of this flow. I think that’s possible with this design,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told the CBS “Early Show.”

“Of course what we have to do is work through the next 24 or 48 hours to optimize that. But that would be the goal. ... We want to stop this oil from spilling to the sea,” Suttles added.

Suttles told CNN of the containment cap: “It should work.”

Suttles was the first BP official to discuss the placement of the containment cap on the well, which has been gushing oil into the Gulf since April.

Using robot submarines, BP managed on Thursday to shear away the gushing well pipe a mile (1.6 km) below the ocean surface, then lowered the containment cap over the jagged hole left atop the crippled wellhead assembly in its latest bid to curtail the oil flow.

“We do have a cap successfully in place,” Suttles said.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen called the move a “positive development” but “only a temporary and partial fix.”

Once the containment cap is firmly in place over the wellhead, the plan is to start funneling at least some of the escaping oil and gas into a large hose that would carry it from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to the surface, where it would be collected in ships and safely removed.