A small fire crippled BP’s oil containment system on its gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well Tuesday, forcing the beseiged energy company to cease capturing oil until further notice.

Since the shutdown, which began at 9:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, the leak has continued unabated, a BP spokesman said.

“We’re not capturing anything at the moment,” company spokesman Robert Wine said.

BP said the company suspects that a lightning strike caused the fire at the top of an oil derrick on a drillship that had been processing captured crude.

Wine did not know whether the shutdown would delay BP’s startup of a second containment system that had been slated for Tuesday.

(Source: CNBC / Reuters)