Energy giant BP scrambled on Saturday to make good on its latest attempt to contain oil from a ruptured wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico as the government approved the use of dispersants underwater, at the source of the seabed gusher.

With crude oil pouring unchecked from a blown-out well a mile deep on the floor of the Gulf, London-based BP was struggling to guide robots to insert a narrow tube wrapped in a rubber flange into the 21-inch pipe spewing the oil — and to funnel that oil to a drill ship at the surface.

“That work is currently underway and we hope to begin operations overnight,” BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told reporters on Friday afternoon.