The reason they are having such a hard time is, they are using the same failed techniques they used on the Ixtoc I oil spill that happened in 1979.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I_oil_spill

While technology for deep drilling has advanced greatly sense 1979, technology to deal with a potential disaster has not.

They were not able to stop the flow of oil from the Ixtoc I oil spill until relief wells were completed and the well capped on 23 March 1980, nearly 10 months later.
pepurr Reviewed by pepurr on . Plug the damn hole! We are all impacted by this, no matter where you live. Things like this keep adding up, and chipping away at our biosphere. The Coast Guard said 210000 gal. a day. That's 3818 barrels a day, or 1,393,636 barrels a year. They say there is enough oil down there to keep it flowing for the rest of our lives. Who's life? Our kids lives? My life? If it is our kids lives and they never get that thing plugged, that will be 104,522,727 barrels of oil. Enough to have 418 Exxon Valdez disasters. Rating: 5