(AP) – Former BP PLC chief Tony Hayward says the company was unprepared for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the media scrutiny, forcing it to improvise solutions.
In an interview with the BBC to be broadcast Tuesday (Nov. 9), Hayward says the 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.” He left his post last month after taking much of the flak for BP’s poor public handling of the disaster.
He added the company had earlier come near the financial brink when it found itself unable to borrow on capital markets during the credit crunch.
