About 74 percent of the oil that leaked from BP's damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico is gone from the Gulf water, according to a U.S. government report released on Wednesday.

"It is estimated that burning, skimming and direct recovery from the wellhead removed one quarter (25 percent) of the oil released from the wellhead," said the report, titled "BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Budget: What Happened to the Oil?"

Another 25 percent naturally evaporated or dissolved and 24 percent was dispersed, either naturally or "as the result of operations," into small droplets, the report said.

The report was produced by a team led by the Interior Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The remaining 26 percent of oil may be in the water or on shore, according to the report.

The report came as London-based BP reported a "significant milestone" on Wednesday toward plugging the well permanently. Engineers carried out the "static kill" to inject drilling mud over a period of eight hours on Tuesday to control the well's pressure.

BP's Macondo well ruptured after an oil rig exploded and sank on April 20, spewing up to 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean for nearly three months in the world's worst accidental marine spill.