BP boss faces up to the hard questions

BP's new face for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, managing director Bob Dudley, admitted faults in the firm's spill response during a unique question-and-answer forum broadcast live online, AFP reported today.

"The clean-up effort has not been perfect," Dudley confessed to a questioner in the Google- and YouTube-partnered event hosted by PBS public television's NewsHour programme. "There have been gaps in the defences."

Billed as "America speaks to BP," the one-hour interview gave Gulf native Dudley a chance to distance the oil giant from the gaffe-prone leadership of its British chief executive Tony Hayward, who handed over the reins after enduring weeks of criticism and ridicule for his handling of the catastrophe, AFP reported.

The spill "will change the oil industry forever," Dudley said. Concerned and sometimes angry Americans submitted their questions via YouTube, Google and the PBS website.

"Safety standards need to be understood and increased," he said, adding the spill and his company's response were part of a "game-changing event for the oil and gas industry" with ramifications stretching beyond the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaking with candour and a subtle southern US accent - in contrast to Hayward's sardonic British tones that irked many Americans - Dudley also emphasised the importance of maintaining a stable BP to fulfill its
obligations in the region.

"We will find a way to shut this well off, and then we will continue to devote all the resources necessary through the Unified Command," which oversees the different agencies and organisations responding to the spill, he vowed.

"To clean up the Gulf and restore it to the way it was, and having a strong BP is important for us to be able to do that."

But Dudley also acknowledged the cleanup effort would "take years."

Despite its tumbling stock value since the spill began on April 22, BP
remains a "very strong company in terms of its cash flow," he insisted.

The energy giant has already disbursed over 130 million dollars in emergency payments to fishermen and others affected by the slick.

"It's important to have a strong and viable BP... We need to have some certainty for our investments so we can continue to generate the cash that will allow us to make good on our obligations and commitments and claims," Dudley said, according to AFP.