BP CEO: We'll Pay Oil Spill Costs

(CBS/ AP)  The CEO of British Petroleum said Monday that while he believes his company is not 100 percent to blame for the devastating oil spill off the Louisiana coast, it will aid businesses affected by the spill and continue efforts to stop the oil from reaching the shore.

"This is not our accident, but it's our responsibility," BP CEO Tony Hayward told CBS' "The Early Show" Monday.

BP PLC said Monday it will pay "all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs" resulting from the blown-out oil well.

In a fact sheet posted to the company's website, BP said it took responsibility for the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and says, "we will clean it up." The company says it will pay compensation for "legitimate and objectively verifiable" claims for property damage, personal injury, and commercial losses.

Meanwhile, BP was preparing a system never tried before at such depths to siphon away the geyser of crude from a blown-out well a mile under Gulf of Mexico waters. However, the plan to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes being built to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface will need at least another six to eight days to get it in place.

Hayward said his company was "absolutely focused" on not letting oil reach shore.

Crews continued to lay boom in what increasingly feels like a futile effort to slow down the spill, with all ideas to contain the flow failing so far.

Fishermen from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle got the news that more than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing areas were closed, fracturing their livelihood for at least 10 days and likely more just as the prime spring season was kicking in. The slick also was precariously close to a key shipping lane that feeds goods and materials to the interior of the U.S. by the Mississippi River.

Special Section: Gulf Coast Oil Disaster
Oil Spill by the Numbers
Gulf Oil Spill Containment Efforts

Even if the well is shut off in a week, fishermen and wildlife officials wonder how long it will take for the Gulf to recover. Some compare it to the Hurricane Katrina that Louisiana is still recovering from after nearly five years.

[426ernie]

It is plain to see that BP is going to go under over this maze of mistakes.I wonder how any rig worker can trust their life to a BP rig's safety features.I think this whole deal will be sung to the tune of trillions of dollars by the fat lady of course.

[gerryrigger]

BP/CBS if you're listening, here's an idea. Why not deploy uninflated hot air balloons and maneuver them robotically over the leak where they then inflate underwater with oil rising to the surface. When they fill up with oil, ballasts can be jettisoned to allow the balloon to float to the surface where it can then be recovered with sumps onto a barge.

[Cattzen]

Exxon Oil chose to pay Attnorneys istead of paying victims, and still have not pony'd up to their environmental disaster.

[griz326]

The article says talks about recovery time as if 5 years is a long time. The Gulf will recover without intervention in its own good time, none of the damage will be permanent.

If you want to evaluate this with a human time cycle, then "OH MY, the damage is hideous!"

If you want to cry about offshore drilling and not be an obnoxious hypocrite: sell your car, your air conditioner, your electric refrigerator, your television, your computers and your all electric house. Go live in a tent.

[erasmus111]

The fact that the wildlife has to suffer and die is hideous! And the damage to the birds is permanent. DEATH IS PERMANENT.

[waterflaws]

Containment, Cleanup and Compensation - BP, Halliburton and Trans-Ocean...(or something like that) should be expending any and all resorces necessary, RIGHT NOW. Let THEM play the blame-game LATER. If they don't pay now, they won't do it later (ex.- Exxon-Valdez oil spill).

Then Republican Vice President of the U.S.A., Dick Cheney*, with direct ties financially and executively to Halliburton, undoubtably had something to do with the lack of safeguards for this rig.

*Darling of Americans For Tax Reform, The Heritage Foundation, Fox News/Newscorpse, member of PNAC and several other Right-Wing-"Conservative" Organizations. I wonder if BP attended his secret energy meetings?

[MediaMadness]

______________


Mr. President

I know you were extending an olive branch to the "Drill Baby Drill" and Oil Drill Loving, Republican Senate-Congress and their Followers, but this is not Worth the Headaches and above All else the Devestation to the Ecology, The Fishing Industry and Wildlife.

The Republican Party will still Hate You and Vote Against You, No Matter what you do..

There's No Appeasing the Republican Party, AM-Hate Radio, Their Hate Mongering Followers and the Fox News Media, there is Simply No Appeasing them, No Matter How Hard You Try.

As soon as you announced the Oil Exploration Interest, Fox News, AM-Hate Radio and the GOP Attacked Your Decision as [Meaningless] and Demanded You Do More.

You Can Not Appease these Hate Mongers..

You Could Give them 99.9% of what they Want and they'd still say, I Want the Entire [100%]

Please End this, Mr. President, Please End this.

______________

[MediaMadness]

______________

1. BP-Haliburton is Privately Owned and Operated [Free Market] and Not Owned by the Big Bad, Mean Ole Federal Government.

2. Chavez's Venezuelan Oil Company [CITGO OIL] is Government Owned and Operated.

3. Anyone Trying to Use this to Make [Political Points] On Either Side, Especially the Pro-Drill Here, Drill Now & Drill Baby, Drill [Republican Senate-Congress] should be Kicked Out of The Country, this is not President Obama's Katrina or President Obama's Fault...

Reality, Its BP-Haliburton's Problem, The Great Private Sector & The Free Market System whose Clearly at Fault, here.

[rwsmith29456]

Please explain what "Not 100% to blame" and "This is not our accident" means in some quantifiable way.

[KnowWhoYouBlame]

1. BP is the operator of the project. It does the planning and management. It hires people and equipment to get the job done and requires to comply with its high safety standards.
2. Transocean - the drilling contractor provided Deepwater Horizon rig and its qualified personnel to drill the well. It is the world's largest drilling contractor, and the most competent one.
3. The ultimate fail-safe mechanism - the BOP had to shut the well, but apparently the manufacturer had not considered the situation where thousands of tons of metal will fall on top of it and crack it (although not exactly the case).
4. Although BP accepts the full responsibility for bringing the well under control and cleaning the spill, the GoM spill is not only BP's responsibility. Each and every company out there calling itself environmentally responsible should care, every company that can stop the spill or help cleaning the Gulf with its resources should jump in, should make effort. It is America's environment, it is where they operate. Why all of them watching BP's efforts silently, when perhaps can help with engineering or manufacturing of any kind of solution?
Those sitting and watching and throwing ALL the blames on BP are the most irresponsible in their sayings.
Good luck to BP in its efforts.

[tsigili]

Such folly. To even try to assign a political party, the responsibility, while Obama is saying to open up the drilling, shows the folly of humans.

If you really want to know who is responsible, look to yourselves.....yes, John Q. Public.....why, you ask????? Because it is YOU, who has incessantly increased the need for energy, by having babies by the million. You CANNOT grow the human population, exponentially, without destroying the planet......pure and simple.

Realize, that all of the encouragement for all those babies, from governments, is all about economic growth......translated....GREED! Population growth drives economic growth, so......we are overpopulating ourselves right out of existence.

This is but a symptom, of that problem.

[book_of_wally]

Silence you guilty republican!

[travelers345]

Nobody would pay billions of bucks in cleanup if they didn't think it was their fault. Please.