The well gushed oil into the Gulf for three months before it was capped, but the impact on residents of the US southeast, the Gulf states' economies and the environment continue to be felt.

Here is a summary of events since the start of the disaster:

April 2010

-- 20: The BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes and is engulfed in flames in the Gulf of Mexico some 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven rig workers are killed and several more are seriously injured in the accident, which destroys the rig.

-- 22: The rig sinks 5,000 feet to the sea floor.

May 2010

-- 2: President Barack Obama visits Louisiana and says in a speech that BP is clearly "responsible" for the giant oil spill and must pay for the clean-up.

The US government bans commercial and recreational fishing in parts of the Gulf.

-- 6: BP tries lowering a 100-ton dome down to the seabed to be placed on top of the gushing well to contain the spill. The unprecedented effort ends in failure when ice crystals clog up the containment dome.

-- 12: A new attempt to cap the flow of oil from the well, using a smaller containment dome called a "top hat" fails.

-- 20: A month after the blast and fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig, officials in Louisiana confirm that oil has reached the state's shore and "destroyed" miles of fragile marshland.

-- 22: Obama forms an independent commission to probe the spill.

-- 25: The fishing ban in the Gulf is expanded, with an area roughly the size of Greece closed to fishing.

-- 27: Obama announces a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling and suspends the issuance of new permits.

-- 29: BP's latest "top kill" attempt to stop oil from gushing into the Gulf fails.

-- 30: BP chief executive Tony Hayward sparks outrage after he says "I would like my life back."

June 2010

-- 1: The US launches a civil and criminal investigation into the spill.

-- 2: US officials extend the Gulf fishing ban again, to cover more than a third of the Gulf's federal waters.

-- 10: BP says it has spent about $1.43 billion dollars on the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, claims and other costs related to the disaster.

-- 15: International ratings agency Fitch slashes BP's rating to close to junk.

-- 16: BP announces a $20 billion fund to compensate people affected by the disaster.

July 2010

-- 12: A giant cap is placed successfully over the leak.

-- 15: BP says oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf.

-- 27: BP boss Hayward resigns, replaced by American Bob Dudley.

-- 27: BP announces plans to sell $30 billion in assets to cover the cost of the spill.

August 2010

-- 2: The US government says the ruptured BP well gushed an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, of which 800,000 barrels were captured.

-- 5: A "static kill" operation succeeds in plugging the well with heavy drilling mud and cement.

September 2010

-- 19: US officials declare the well "dead" after a "bottom kill" operation succeeds in permanently sealing off the reservoir.

-- 30: Tough new safety rules are announced by US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for offshore oil and gas drilling.

October 2010

-- 13: The US lifts the moratorium on deepwater drilling.

January 2011:

-- 11: In its final report, the presidential commission appointed by Obama to investigate the spill says the Gulf disaster was "foreseeable and preventable." It calls for a top-to-bottom overhaul of oil and gas industry practices and tougher government oversight.

February 2011

-- 1: BP posts a $4.9 billion loss for 2010 and warns that the $40.9 billion charge related to the spill does not include many potential legal liabilities.

-- 28: The US government awards its first permit for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to US firm Noble Energy.

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