Americas

Americas

BP’s Tony Hayward: Gulf oil spill ’never should have happened’

17 June 2010 19:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. In prepared testimony before a House panel that is expected to question him harshly Thursday, BP chief executive Tony Hayward says the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico "never should have happened" and has left him "personally devastated", APA reports quoting The Washington Post.

Hayward is appearing before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to answer questions about the causes of the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the resulting oil spill, the worst in U.S. history.

In an opening statement, the chairman of the full committee, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), cited internal BP documents as he assailed the company for repeatedly taking "shortcuts" that he said endangered lives and increased the risk of a catastrophic blowout. He said the committee could find no evidence that Hayward "paid any attention to the tremendous risks BP was taking" in the drilling of the exploratory well that blew out.

"BP’s corporate complacency is astonishing," Waxman told the panel. He charged that "there is a complete contradiction between BP’s words and deeds." Hayward was brought in to make safety a top priority but instead took unacceptable risks and "cut corner after corner," Waxman said, "and now the whole Gulf Coast is paying the price."

But the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Joe Barton (Tex.), offered a personal apology to Hayward for what he said was a "shakedown" of the company in a meeting Wednesday at the White House.

"I am ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Barton said. He said an escrow account that BP agreed to pay into amounts to a "slush fund" that has "no legal standing" and sets "a terrible precedent" for other corporations. Saying that he was speaking for himself, Barton told Hayward, "I apologize."

Barton referred to BP’s agreement Wednesday to pay $20 billion into an escrow account to cover claims associated with the disaster.

In a meeting Wednesday with President Obama at the White House, BP’s board chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, apologized for the spill, then made a public statement of contrition afterward. But Svanberg’s apology was less than well received when he committed a gaffe of sorts by saying, "We care about the small people."
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According to prepared testimony obtained by the Associated Press, Hayward will tell the panel that he understands the anger of Americans toward him and BP.

The explosion and sinking of the drilling rig, which was leased to BP, "never should have happened, and I am deeply sorry that they did," Hayward says. "My sadness has only grown as the disaster continues."

Hayward says that "neither I nor the company is perfect," according to AP. "But we are unwavering in our commitment to fulfill all our responsibilities." He says BP has spent nearly $1.5 billion since the explosion and vows that it will not rest until the leaking well is plugged and the spill cleaned up.

In a separate hearing, the Interior Department’s inspector general plans to tell the House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday that elected officials should consider imposing ethics rules on oil and gas companies that do business with the federal government.

According to a copy of her prepared testimony obtained by The Washington Post, the inspector general, Mary L. Kendall, will also tell the panel that the Minerals Management Agency, which oversees offshore oil drilling, is probing the BP oil spill in a "completely backwards" way and needs to have its culture revamped.