But he said it was hard to cope under such intense scrutiny. We were making it up day to day. By the end of May, the company's best hopes of plugging the leak rested on pumping heavy drilling fluid down the well - in an operation known as top kill. But Mr Hayward's personal remarks and actions enraged residents of the Gulf coast and US politicians. During attempts to clean up the oil, Mr Hayward told journalists that he "wanted his life back". Two months into the disaster Mr Hayward was called to a hearing in Washington where he was grilled over his handling of the operation.
Two days later, Mr Hayward was seen on a yacht off the Isle of Wight where his son was taking part in a yacht race, which made headlines around the world as a publicity own-goal. He was criticised by President Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who said the boating incident has "just been part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes".
It is impossible to say and we will mount, as part of the aftermath, a very detailed environmental assessment as we go forward. We're going to do that with some of the science institutions in the US. In an interview with the Guardian , Mr Hayward insists the leaked oil and the dispersant that is being released into the sea to try to tackle the slick should be put in context.
The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume. It was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people and their processes. BP Gulf of Mexico response. Weeks later, after BP gave details of its own preliminary findings into the cause of the accident, a more contrite Hayward said: "A number of companies are involved, including BP, and it is simply too early — and not up to us — to say who is at fault.
But the damage had been done, as BP appeared to be trying to duck responsibility. Duncan John, a partner at StrategicFit, a strategy consultancy for the energy industry, praised BP for spelling out how likely each of their attempts to halt the spill were to work. But warned: "Communication over the extent of their responsibility and the consequences may run the risk of aggravating an already sceptical public if not carefully handled.
Last month, Hayward also made some ill-advised comments in an interview with the Guardian which received widespread coverage around the world. Asked about the amount of oil and dispersant flowing into the gulf, he responded: "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.
In the same interview, he also said that if all other attempts failed, he could "guarantee" that the flow of oil would stop in three months with the completion of a relief well. At that stage, oil had not reached land in large quantities. But pressed about the damage already done to the marine environment, he said: "No, that's the point you seem to be missing The containment exercise on the surface is proving to be extraordinarily effective.
Hayward, who has a PhD in geology, said on Monday that BP had no evidence of such an underwater slick, arguing that because oil is lighter than water it will rise to the surface. For BP, seeing is believing, it seems.
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