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BP chief executive Bob Dudley has accused politicians and the news media of being too hasty to pin all the blame on his company for the devastating Gulf of Mexico spill — and emphasized the need for deep-water drilling.

In his first major public speech since taking the top job, Dudley also said that BP would not pull out of the United States — and that the country needed a company with BP’s resources to meet its vast energy needs.

Dudley sought to make clear that BP was learning every lesson possible from the disaster.

“We were certainly not perfect in our response, but we have tried to do the right thing,” Dudley added.

Before becoming the first American to lead the British oil company on Oct. 1, Dudley was in charge of BP’s spill response efforts in the Gulf.

US lawmakers have widely blamed BP for the disaster.

Dudley said many parties, including members of the news media and rival oil companies, were guilty of “a great rush to judgment” before all the facts were known.

“I watched graphic projections of oil swirling around the Gulf, around Florida, across and around Bermuda to England — these appeared authoritative and inevitable. The public fear was everywhere,” he said.

The company’s own investigation shared the blame between BP, rig owner Transocean and joint contractor Halliburton.

But former EPA administrator William Reilly, joint chair of an independent oil spill commission investigating the rig explosion, suggested that BP fed the fear and mistrust by initially minimizing the impact of the Gulf spill.

The US government could fine BP up to $21 billion for the spill, on top of a $20 billion disaster fund that the company has committed itself to.

A bill that passed in the US House of Representatives would prevent energy companies like BP that have a poor safety record from getting new offshore permits.

Dudley stressed BP’s commitment to the United States despite the ongoing political and public fallout and talked up the company’s ability to withstand the expected financial hit from the spill.

Dudley argued that deepwater drilling was necessary despite the dangers.

He cited predictions that the world could be consuming 40 percent more energy than today by 2030.

Deepwater drilling is projected to grow to account for 9 percent of total oil supplies in 2020, from 7 percent currently.

He said BP was “one of only a handful of companies with the financial and technological strengths to undertake development projects in these difficult geographies and it can be done safely.”

BP continues to make plans for further drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rig owner Pride International said BP had leased two of its deepwater rigs.

One of those rigs is already in the Gulf and another is on its way. 


Associated Press