Politicians attack BP's Hayward on Capitol Hill

17th Jun 2010 17:38

US politicians carried out an eight hour-long assault on BP chief Tony Hayward yesterday, accusing the oil man of ignoring the risks his company was taking drilling a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico.There was "not a single e-mail or document that you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well," Henry Waxman, joint chairman of the House committee on energy and commerce, told a subdued Hayward Thursday.The Briton said he was "deeply sorry" for the spill, the worst environmental disaster in US history.But that didn't cool tempers on Capitol Hill. Democrat Bart Stupak barked: "We are not small people. We wish to get our lives back," referring to BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg's description of the spill victims and Hayward's wish for his "life back". "I'm sure you'll get your life back, and with a golden parachute to England," Stupak continued.Waxman said corporate "complacency" at BP prior to the explosion and sinking of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig in April had been "astonishing". A House of Representatives committee quizzed Hayward over the circumstances leading up to the catastrophe and the subsequent, heavily criticised, attempts to stem the leak.His grilling came just a day after BP agreed to pay $20bn into a fund to pay for the clean-up of the spill while it also cancelled its dividends for the remainder of this year.BP shares rallied strongly today on relief that the conditions attached to the fund were not more onerous. The firm has to pay in $5bn this year and $1.25bn every quarter thereafter.Hayward's testimony again stated that the explosion that killed 11 workers was an accident "caused by an unprecedented combination of failures".Latest estimates suggest up to 60,000 barrels of oil are still leaking from the well every day."We continue to do more to increase our operational flexibility and collection capability," Hayward said. "We will not rest with our containment efforts until the well is permanently killed. I know it feels like this all takes a long time but we are compressing operations that normally take months into days."He warned: "It is important to keep in mind that these techniques have never before been attempted 5,000 feet under water."BP is the largest operator in the Gulf of Mexico and still has major assets in Alaska. Analysts suggest it has little option but to co-operate with the US authorities to protect its interests there.The firm estimates more than 40bn barrels of oil and gas lie below the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, of which about 15bn barrels have been discovered. BP has more than 650 lease blocks in waters greater than 1,250 feet in the region.