It has been over 100+ days now since the April 20th explosion of the British Petroleum deep water well off the Louisiana coast that killed 11 people and spewed as much as 184 million gallons into the Gulf of Mexico. Some estimates put the spill at the Deepwater Horizon Macondo rig up to 5 million barrels of oil in the largest oil spill ever in American waters. All efforts to date to cap the well and stop the flow of oil have been marked by repeated failures and disappointments.

However, the end of this spill may be in sight. In the past two weeks BP technicians have managed to install a tight fitting cap that stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf. Final preparations for plugging the well are underway with a “static kill” plan.

The static kill, also known as bullheading, is part of a two pronged strategy to kill the well by mudding and cementing it shut twice, once from above with the static kill and then from below, using a relief well they have been digging for months. Engineers could begin the static kill maneuvers as early as Monday, August 02, 2010.

If the static kill attempt sounds familiar, that’s because it is. BP tried a similar process, called a top kill, to choke the well with mud over the Memorial Day weekend. This effort failed because the pressure of the oil and gas pouring out of the well overcame the incoming mud and pushed it back into the Gulf waters. The static kill and the relief well were designed to complement each other.

While the static kill may only plug the center well pipe, the relief well will penetrate both the central pipe and the portion of the well between the inner piping and the outer casing. That area, called the annulus, most likely would not be reached by the mud and cement injected by the static kill only.

There is also reason to hope this time will be different. For one, the oil is no longer flowing freely from the well, thanks to the temporary cap that has contained the gusher for two weeks now. That means engineers will not have to pump in the mud and cement with as much force.

BP needs to get it right this time. Each day the temperature of the Gulf of Mexico waters increases, so does the threat of another violent storm disrupting the cleanup process. U.S. Federal officials are hoping to end the oil threat once and for all before peak hurricane season, which typically lasts from mid August to late October.