New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Three weeks after BP plugged its crippled Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico with cement and mud from above, crews are "fishing" for pieces of drill pipe that need to be removed from inside the well's blowout preventer before crews can move on to the "bottom kill" -- the permanent fix for the well. Once those pieces of drill pipe are retrieved, crews will be able to replace the Macondo well's old blowout preventer with a new one awaiting use on the nearby ship, the Development Driller II, BP spokeswoman Catherine Hill confirmed Thursday.
@highlight
NEW: Florida calls off state of emergency for several peninsula coastal counties
@highlight
Crews in the Gulf are trying to remove three pieces of drill pipe from the sunken well
@highlight
The work was delayed by a chemical buildup that jammed the entryway to the well
@highlight
Once the drill pipe is removed, crew can move on to a permanent shutdown of the well
Two days later, the platform sank and oil from the @placeholder well underwater started gushing into the Gulf.