Hayward: BP unprepared for gulf oil-spill disaster

Associated Press

LONDON

Former BP PLC chief Tony Hayward has acknowledged that the company was unprepared for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the media frenzy it spawned and said the firm came close to financial disaster as its credit sources evaporated.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast Tuesday, Hayward said the company’s contingency plans were inadequate, and “we were making it up day to day.”

An April 20 explosion aboard a gulf oil rig killed 11 workers and kicked off the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Hayward said BP was “not prepared to deal with the intensity of the media scrutiny” it faced as millions of barrels of oil poured into the ocean and washed up on shore.

Hayward left his post last month after taking much of the flak for BP’s poor public handling of the disaster. Gaffes, including his statement that “I want my life back,” were ridiculed in the U.S. media and seized on by critics of BP.