Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP CEO: Gulf Coast Oil Spill Is Relatively 'Tiny' Compared To 'Very Big Ocean'

Ben Frumin | May 14, 2010, 11:36AM

BP Group CEO Tony Hayward

BP CEO Tony Hayward isn't just off message -- he's way off message.

In an interview with the Guardian, Hayward declared that the giant oil spill in the gulf (still gushing thousands of gallons of oil a day into the sea) and the hundreds of thousands of gallons of "dispersant" BP has pumped into the water to combat the slick are "tiny" compared to the "very big ocean."

Read more »

Tony Hayward

BP Chief Claims Oil Spill 'Wasn't Our Accident' Despite BP Role In Running Rig (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | May 4, 2010, 9:26AM

BP Group CEO Tony Hayward

The CEO of BP is trying to get out in front of potential lawsuits by casting the blame for the Gulf oil spill squarely on the owner of the rig: Transocean. But in doing so in media interviews Monday, BP's Tony Hayward appears to have also gotten out in front of the known facts.

"It wasn't our accident," he told the Today Show on Monday. Pressed by anchor Meredith Vieira, Hayward claimed: "the drilling rig was a Transocean drilling rig. It was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people, their processes."

But oil industry experts tell TPMmuckraker that BP, as the lease operator on the Deepwater Horizon rig, most likely did have a role in decision-making aboard the drilling vessel. And six BP employees were on the rig when it exploded April 20.

Read more »