The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement approved the plan in May. The plan also includes three previously approved wells 72 miles off Louisiana.

Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council claim in a petition filed Thursday in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta that the decision violates the law and that the environment would be harmed if it stands.

New regulations for deepwater drilling were imposed following last year's deadly rig explosion and Gulf oil spill.

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A year after the rig explosion that triggered the worst offshore oil spill in American history, President Barack Obama vowed to hold BP and others accountable for "the painful losses that they've caused."

For its part, BP filed a lawsuit alleging negligence by the rig owner and by the maker of the device that failed to stop the spill. Both of those companies filed their own claims, a reminder that lengthy court battles lie ahead.

The disaster began on the night of April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon rig burst into flames and killed the 11 men. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons of oil -- 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled -- spewed from the well.

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Meanwhile, on land, vigils were scheduled in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to mark the spill.

On the night of April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon, a rig owned by Transocean Ltd., burst into flames after drilling a well for BP PLC, killing 11 workers on or near the drilling floor. The rest of the crew evacuated, but two days later the rig toppled into the Gulf and sank to the sea floor. The bodies were never recovered.

Over the next 85 days, 206 million gallons of oil -- 19 times more than the Exxon Valdez spilled -- spewed from the well. In response, the nation commandeered the largest offshore fleet of vessels since D-Day, and BP spent billions of dollars to clean up the mess, saving itself from collapse.

"I can't believe tomorrow has been one year because it seems like everything just happened," Courtney Kemp, whose husband Roy Wyatt Kemp was killed on the rig, wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday. "I have learned a lot of things through all of this but the most important is to live each day as if it were your last ... what matters is if you truly live."

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The co-chair of the panel, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen, told a packed hearing room Tuesday in a New Orleans suburb that members have been trying for two months to get Transocean to turn over materials related to its compliance with international safety management codes.

Nguyen says the panel also has been unable to get a specific Transocean manager to come in and testify about safety.

Transocean lawyers say the document request is too cumbersome. They say whether the witness testifies isn't within their control.

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The testimony came from Doug Martin, president of Smit Salvage Americas, which was hired to help try to save the Deepwater Horizon after it exploded. He told a federal investigative panel that in the hours after the April 20 disaster, he thought it was important to quickly get the robot into the water so engineers could choke off the oil.

But, Martin said, BP officials discussed calculating how the heat from the fire would impact the boat that was to launch the robot. He said he believed that it was a waste of time and that BP was interfering.

"When they wanted to calculate the heat load on the boat, I said, 'How do you know how hot the fire is?'" Martin told the joint U.S. Coast Guard-Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement investigative panel. "I had a hard time believing there was data available at that time to do that. That's why I felt it was better just to keep the boat cool and use commonsense tools to get the ROV in the water."

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John Wright, who is in charge of the operation aboard the Development Driller III vessel, said in an e-mail Monday to The Associated Press that drilling has resumed.

BP and the government have said it would take about four days from the time crews started drilling again to intersect the blown-out well. Once the relief well intersects the blown-out well, crews will pump in mud and cement to permanently seal the well.

The flow of crude was first stopped with a cap in mid-July.

The April 20 rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP's undersea well.

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In its 193-page report posted on its website, the British company described the incident as an accident that arose from a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces.

BP spread the blame around, and even was critical of its own workers' conduct, but it defended some parts of the well's design and it was careful in its assessments. It already faces hundreds of lawsuits and billions of dollars of liabilities. In public hearings, it had already tried to shift some of the blame to rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton. BP was leasing the rig from Transocean and owned the well that blew out.

While BP didn't completely absolve its engineers, the company shot down some of the things they've been criticized for by members of Congress and others.

"Well control actions taken prior to the explosion suggest the rig crew was not sufficiently prepared to manage an escalating well control situation," the report said.

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BP PLC reported that mud forced down the well overnight was pushing the crude back down to its source for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20, killing 11 workers.

And a federal report being released Wednesday indicated that only about a quarter of the spilled oil remains in the Gulf and is degrading quickly, with the rest having been contained, cleaned up or otherwise disappeared.

President Barack Obama, while noting that people's lives "have been turned upside down," declared in Washington that the operation was "finally close to coming to an end."

The containment effort isn't over. Crews performing the so-called "static kill" effort overnight now must decide whether to follow up by pumping cement down the broken wellhead. Federal officials said they won't declare complete victory until they also pump in mud and then cement from the bottom of the well, and that won't happen for several weeks.

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Some who have seen their sales plunge because of protests say BP has already sought a fresh start by naming an American to replace its gaffe-prone British CEO, so why not change the name on gas station marquees as a further symbol of that culture shift.

Others worry that a name change is a big deal that is risky given all the marketing dollars already spent building up the BP brand. They also believe a successful turnaround with the existing brand will have a bigger payoff.

In the aftermath of the oil spill, some BP-branded gas stations reported sales declines of 10 percent to 40 percent from Florida to Illinois. BP later responded by offering distributors of BP gasoline cash in their pockets, reductions in credit card fees and help with more national advertising.

The BP name and green-and-yellow sunflower logo took over after BP merged with Amoco in the late 1990s, replacing the Amoco name and its blue-and-red torch inside an oval logo.

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Engineers are so confident in the stability of an experimental plug -- which has mostly throttled the oil for more than a week -- that they won't open it even if the storm hits directly. They'll likely lose sight of the temporary cap for at least a few days.

The storm blossomed over the Bahamas and was to enter the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend, and a tropical storm watch was issued early Friday for the northern Gulf coast from Destin, Fla., to Morgan City, La.

The rough weather could delay by another 12 days the push to plug the broken well for good using mud and cement, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen and BP officials conceded. Even if it's not a direct hit, the rough weather will push back efforts to kill the well by at least a week.

"While this is not a hurricane, it's a storm that will have probably some significant impacts, we're taking appropriate cautions," Allen said in Mobile, Ala.

Bonnie had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph Friday as it swirled about 80 miles south-southeast of Miami.

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The Obama administration's point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said early Monday that the company promised to watch closely for signs of new leaks around the mile-deep well, which has stopped gushing oil into the water since the experimental cap was closed Thursday.

Late Sunday, Allen said something was detected seeping near the broken oil well and demanded in a sharply worded letter that BP step up monitoring of the ocean floor. Allen didn't say what was seeping. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday afternoon the seepage was about two miles from the well head. He also said the well head is leaking.

The concern all along -- since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected -- was a leak elsewhere in the well bore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. An underground leak could let oil and gas escape uncontrolled through bedrock and mud.

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The Obama administration's point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said early Monday that government scientists had gotten the answers they wanted about how BP is monitoring the seabed around the mile-deep well, which has stopped gushing oil into the water since the experimental cap was closed Thursday.

Late Sunday, Allen said a seep had been detected a distance from the busted oil well and demanded in a sharply worded letter that BP step up monitoring of the ocean floor. Allen didn't say what was coming from the seep. White House energy adviser Carol Browner told the CBS "Early Show" the seep was found less than two miles from the well site.

The concern all along -- since pressure readings on the cap weren't as high as expected -- was a leak elsewhere in the well bore, meaning the cap may have to be reopened to prevent the environmental disaster from becoming even worse and harder to fix. An underground leak could let oil and gas escape uncontrolled through bedrock and mud.

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No immediate leaks were spotted, which was encouraging. But midway through the testing period on the new temporary cap that was bottling up the crude inside the well, the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.

Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running low three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further study but remained confident.

"This is generally good news," he said. But he cautioned, "We need to be careful not to do any harm or create a situation that cannot be reversed."

He said the testing would go on into the night, at which point BP may decide whether to reopen the cap and allow some oil to spill into the sea again.

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Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said on a Friday afternoon conference pressure readings from the cap have not reached the level that would show there are no other leaks in the well.

He said the test will go ahead for another 6-hour period before being reassessed to see if BP needs to reopen the cap and let oil spill out again.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- BP said its capped-off well appeared to be holding steady Friday as a white-knuckle waiting period ticked by with engineers watching pressure gauges for signs of a leak.

Results monitored from control rooms on ships at sea and hundreds of miles away at the company's U.S. headquarters in Houston showed the oil staying inside the cap, rather than escaping through any undiscovered breaches, BP PLC vice president Kent Wells said on a morning conference call.

Four underwater robots scoured the sea floor but had also found no signs of new leaks, he said.

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Results monitored from control rooms on ships at sea and hundreds of miles away at the company's U.S. headquarters in Houston showed the oil staying inside the cap, rather than escaping through any undiscovered breaches, BP PLC vice president Kent Wells said on a conference call.

Four underwater robots scoured the sea floor but had also found no signs of new leaks.

President Barack Obama said Friday the progress was good news, but cautioned an anxious public not to "get too far ahead of ourselves." Obama said the cap was still being tested and there was still an "enormous clean up job" and ensuring quick compensation for Gulf residents and business in the offing.

There was no evidence of a leak in the pipe under the sea floor, Wells said, one of the main concerns. Wells said the results were encouraging 17 hours after valves were shut to trap oil inside the cap, a test that could last up to 48 hours.

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After 85 days and up to 184 million gallons, BP finally gained control over one of America's biggest environmental catastrophes Thursday by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring.

Though a temporary fix, the accomplishment was greeted with hope, high expectations -- and, in many cases along the beleaguered coastline, disbelief. From one Gulf Coast resident came this: "Hallelujah." And from another: "I got to see it to believe it."

If the cap holds, if the sea floor doesn't crack and if the relief wells being prepared are completed successfully, this could be the beginning of the end for the spill. But that's a lot of ifs, and no one was declaring any sort of victory beyond the moment.

The oil stopped flowing at 3:25 p.m. EDT when the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap was slowly throttled shut. That set off a 48-hour watch period in which -- much like the hours immediately after a surgery -- the patient was in stable, guarded condition and being watched closely for complications.

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Kent Wells, a senior vice president in the company, said at a Thursday morning news briefing that the testing of the cap's capabilities could begin later in the day.

A number of steps have to be carried out before then, including checking the seals on the equipment and moving robotic submersibles back into proper position.

The work was interrupted after a leak was discovered late Wednesday in a line that can funnel oil up to a ship if necessary.

The cap is a stopgap measure designed to keep the oil in the well or funnel it to ships until the relief well is done.

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Company vice president Kent Wells said at a news briefing in Houston that BP has closed the first of three openings that have been letting oil flow through the a new cap. Wells said it will take hours before all three are closed.

At that point, what BP calls the official test of the well's capabilities begin, Wells said. The company will be monitoring pressure inside the device, in part to make sure no new leaks develop. They will review at six hour intervals over a 48-hour period whether the new cap works as planned.

National Incident Commander Thad Allen said that after the test, all the valves will be reopened and BP and federal officials will decide whether to close off the well again or keep it open, with the oil that pours out again being collected by vessels floating on the surface of the Gulf.

Allen said at a separate news conference in New Orleans that the decision to go ahead with testing came after a 24-hour delay prompted by an "overabundance of caution" about the effect the pressure could have on the leaking well.

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An administration official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks with BP, said the government was acting out of "abundance of caution" and didn't want potentially dangerous pressure tests on a tighter containment cap that has been placed over the well to go ahead until BP answers questions about possible risks.

At the same time, BP on its own halted the drilling of two relief wells that are designed to be a more permanent solution to plug the well.

The delays were a stunning setback after the oil giant finally seemed to be on track following nearly three months of failed attempts to stop the spill, which has sullied beaches from Florida to Texas and decimated the multibillion dollar fishing industry.

The administration official said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, U.S. Geological Survey chief Marcia McNutt and other government scientists met with BP Tuesday in Houston and had a number of questions about the plan to test the integrity of the well. Chu and other officials want to ensure that putting downward pressure on the well will not cause further leaks, the official said.

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A new, tighter-fitting cap was lowered over the blown-out well Monday night. The next phase was to shut the openings in the 75-ton metal stack of pipes and valves gradually, one at a time, while watching pressure gauges to see if the cap would hold or any new leaks erupted.

The operation was expected to begin late Tuesday, and officials said it could last anywhere from six to 48 hours.

BP and the government's point man on the crisis -- the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and one of the nation's worst environmental disasters -- stressed there were no guarantees, and they urged patience from Gulf residents.

"They ought to be interested and concerned, but if they hold their breath, they'll run out of oxygen," retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told The Associated Press.

If the cap works, it will enable BP to stop the oil from gushing into the sea, either by holding all the oil inside the well machinery like a stopper or, if the pressure is too great, channeling some though pipes to as many as four collection ships.

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