BP rows with partner over oil-spillage blame

Embattled BP came under further pressure today after one of its partners said the British oil giant should shoulder all the financial burden for the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Anadarko Petroleum, which owns a quarter of the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well, last night refused to accept any blame for the explosion that killed 11 workers and sparked America’s worst environmental disaster.

The company’s chairman and chief executive Jim Hackett said in a statement that BP’s actions probably amounted to “gross negligence or wilful misconduct” and insisted it should foot the whole damage bill.

BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward, who endured a marathon grilling from US politicians on Thursday, said he “strongly disagreed” with the allegation and expected the firm’s partners to “live up to their obligations”.

The latest blow for BP came as confusion reigned over the role of under-fire Mr Hayward.

Yesterday, the company’s chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Mr Hayward had been relieved of day-to-day control of the spill and that BP managing director Bob Dudley would now take over.

Meanwhile, other BP officials insisted that Mr Hayward remained in charge of the immediate crisis which has seen millions of gallons of oil continue to threaten the Gulf Coast.

The firm previously announced that Mr Dudley would lead the long-term response once the leak had been stopped.

Latest estimates suggest 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day are continuing to pour from the ruptured well.

The Swedish chairman admitted the oil rig explosion was a “tragic one” which “should never have happened”.

Amid mounting anger in the US the company set up a $20bn (€16bn) compensation fund and scrapped shareholder dividends until the end of the year.

When asked about comments made by the president of Russia – a BP partner - Dmitry Medvedev about the possible “annihilation” of the company, Mr Svanberg said: “No, I don’t think so. I think we have to put everything in perspective, of course this is a huge thing, it is a huge setback for BP ... so of course the company is strong, the company has strong underlying performance, strong cash flow, strong operations.”

BP took another hit yesterday after rating agency Moody’s downgraded the firm’s credit rating, citing the worsening impact of the oil spill, adding that the catastrophe will hurt BP’s finances for years to come.

In an interview with Sky News Mr Svanberg also defended Mr Hayward who was accused by the US Congress on Thursday of “stone-walling” and failing to adequately answer questions.

“Now we are in an investigation and we are facing many, many trials and discussions of what went wrong and it would be wrong to go into those discussions before everything is on the table,” said Mr Svanberg.

Mr Hayward also angered America and was forced to apologise when he put on his Facebook page that he “wanted my life back” following the explosion on April 20.

The chairman said: “... It is clear that Tony has made remarks that have upset people but he is also a man who has probably been on 100 hours of TV time and maybe 500.”

He added: “America is frustrated, the fishermen, the people living on the Gulf Coast are frustrated and all the voices you hear, and you will hear those voices until we have done well there...”

Mr Hayward pledged that BP will foot the entire clean-up bill but insisted it is “too early to say” what caused the massive spill.

There are a series of investigations by the US government and BP itself into the disaster which, said Mr Svanberg: “... Will lead us to the questions, to the answers to the questions, what happened, why did it happen, what did BP do that we could have done differently, what could the industry do differently, what could the regulator do differently, the regulator, the environment, we will all draw conclusions but the focus now is to make sure that we close the well.”

He added: “You must remember that BP is a very strong company with a strong asset base, strong operations, strong profitability and more than well capable of taking care of this situation so I must say that I am actually in the middle of this crisis, still I believe strongly in BP and I am hopeful that we will come through this.”