BP Oil Spill: Containment Cap Installed on Leak, As Anger Surges Over Slow Claims Payouts

July 12, 2010— -- BP has successfully lowered a new containment cap onto its leaking well, its latest attempt to control the gushing oil since the start of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico 84 days ago.

Underwater video of the well showed the new 18-foot, 150,000-pound cap being placed onto the wellhead. The company will soon begin the process of testing the fit that could finally contain all of the leaking oil.

Watch 'World News' for more of Diane Sawyer's coverage from the Gulf Coast.

But even with that sign of success, anger continued to bubble across the Gulf Coast today over unfulfilled damage claims.

Gulf residents say they've been required to fill out mountains of detailed paperwork, but all the forms could amount to nothing if they forget one little thing and BP refuses to pay.

"I done gave them this paperwork three times," one frustrated resident told ABC News today.

Some frustrated fishermen, who haven't been able to work since the start of the spill, said today that BP is doing everything to try to refuse to pay their claims.

Fisherman Darrell Moreaux went to the BP claims office today for a fourth time, with a fistful of receipts trying to prove his claim to a $5,000 check.

"Everyone's dependent on these people now, and we don't know what's the holdup," Moreaux said.

Moreaux said he left broke and broken, his claim rejected once again.

"Where am I gonna go? Who do I need to talk to to pay my electric bill this month? My water bill for this month?" Moreaux said. "I'm gonna be two months behind now. It's disgusting."

BP said that it is swamped by more than 100,000 claims and admits it has yet to approve half of them. In most cases, the company says, they are waiting for more proof of lost income.

But elected officials say that all the proof they need is at the quiet marinas.

"Give them $25,000, give them $50,000 while you work out his claim," said Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.

Today, Kenneith Feinberg, the man charged by the Obama administration to administer BP's $20 billion claims fund, said that he'll be able to help. Feinberg will get control of the money next month, once funds are finalized.

"I will do everything I can to accelerate the payments," Feinberg said. "Not emergency payments of one month but emergency payments for six months at a time."

At a hearing in New Orleans today before the president's commission investigating the spill, residents aired their anger at federal officials, BP, and the entire oil industry.

"We don't need any more cheap energy, no matter how much our politicians will beg for it," said one man who identified himself as Christopher. "Recognize that the ills that exist here in Louisiana are of [the oil industry's] own making."

Today, the Obama administration issued a new, revised moratorium on offshore drilling, after its previous attempt to cut off approval of deep-water projects was rejected by a federal appeals court as too heavy-handed.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the new moratorium, in effect through November 30, will not be based on the water depth of the platform.