BP takes responsibility for oil clean-up

British energy giant BP acknowledged responsibility for the clean-up from a ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico that could continue spewing crude oil for at least another week.

The company said it would pay compensation for legitimate claims for property damage, personal injury and commercial losses.

But chief executive Tony Hayward stressed that the company was not to blame for the Deepwater Horizon spill which happened 41 miles offshore of Louisiana and Mississippi.

The oil spill drained $32bn (€24.3bn) from BP’s stock market value, with the clean-up, lawsuits and fines likely to cost the company billions more.

Mr Hayward told the BBC: “In terms of the responsibility, I want to be very clear about this, this was not our accident but it is our responsibility to deal with the leak and to clean up the oil.

“We take that very seriously and that is what we are going to do.

“At the moment what we are focusing on is eliminating the leak, containing the oil on the surface, and if necessary, defending the shoreline.”

He said the equipment that failed on the rig and led to the spill belonged to owner Transocean, not BP, which operated the rig.

Guy Cantwell, a Transocean spokesman, said: “We will await all the facts before drawing conclusions and we will not speculate.”

On Sunday, US President Barack Obama visited Louisiana to inspect the efforts to combat the leak.

He said: “BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill.”

Mr Hayward said BP deployed thousands of gallons of dispersant on the seabed to deal with the spill. He said the chemical seems to be having a significant impact in keeping oil from flowing to the surface.

He said yesterday: “The biggest volume (of dispersant) that the coastguard had ever deployed prior to this incident was 7,000 gallons per day. Two days ago, consecutively, we deployed 42,000 gallons.

“The scale of the response here is unprecedented.”

In an effort to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well, BP is planning to lower concrete-and-metal boxes nearly a mile under water to capture the oil and transfer it to a barge waiting on the surface. However, the new containment system could take a week to get into place.

A board investigating the oil leak and explosion plans to hold its first public hearing in about two weeks.

The cause of the April 20 explosion, which killed 11 workers, has not been determined. But its full consequences remain to be seen amid fears for the habitats of hundreds of species of wildlife.

An estimated 2.6 million gallons have spilled since the blast, creating a slick more than 130 miles long and 70 miles wide a few miles from the Louisiana coastline.

In a news conference about the spill yesterday, a BP spokesman said that bad weather hampered offshore clean-up attempts, with skimming fleets facing 17ft high waves. He said that skimming ships and flights deploying the dispersant were suspended due to the weather.

The BP official said that another attempt to stem the oil and gas reaching the surface began on Sunday afternoon. He said crews were attempting to drill down to 18,000ft so they could inject drilling fluids and cement to stop the flow.