ExxonMobil chairman, Rex Tillerson, said: “We would not have drilled the well the way they did,” when asked for his response to a 14-page letter from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, itemizing shortcuts allegedly taken by BP.
John Watson, of Chevron, said: “It certainly appears that not all the standards we would observe were followed”. In prepared testimony he called the disaster “preventable”.
Meanwhile Lamar McKay, the chairman of BP America, claimed the company’s disaster response effort was proving “pretty effective” and refused to guarantee that it would set up the multi-billion dollar “escrow” accounts demanded by US officials. The company is struggling to adjust to a new reality in which its credit rating has been downgraded six notches by a major US rating agency.
At the hearing convened by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Edmund Markey, a Democrat, asked Mr McKay three times if he was ready to apologize for consistently underestimating the flow rate from the ruptured Macondo well. “I believe it’s either deliberate deception or gross incompetence,” Mr Markey said.
After quibbling twice over statistics, Mr McKay said: “We are sorry for everything the Gulf Coast is going through. We are sorry for that and the spill.”
Mr Markey, who has led calls for video of the gushing oil to be streamed live on the internet, shot back: “I continue to believe that BP is still more interested in its liability than the liveability of the Gulf.” There is certainly room for improvement in BP’s presentation when its chief executive, Tony Hayward, testifies on Thursday.
thetimes.co.uk June 15 2010
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