New BP chief executive Bob Dudley.Photo: BPNEW ORLEANS — Incoming BP boss Bob Dudley vowed on Friday that the British energy giant would not abandon Gulf residents for years to come, as engineers fine-tuned plans to kill a ruptured well for good.
Making his first trip to the region since he was named to take over the helm of BP, Dudley said that with no oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for two weeks, the company’s focus was shifting to long-term recovery.
“We’ve had some good news on the oil … but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We’ll be here for years,” Dudley told reporters in Mississippi, one of the five states hit by the massive oil spill.
BP is working on drowning the well in an operation dubbed a “static kill” in which mud and cement will be injected down through the ruptured wellhead via a cap installed on July 15.
Dudley confirmed that the operation had been pushed back slightly by a day, saying “we are hopeful by Tuesday the static kill will have been performed.”
A further final measure to seal the leak from the bottom by injecting heavy drilling fluids into the casing of the well will be carried out by the end of August, he said.
With the focus moving now toward mitigating the long-term impact of what has been dubbed the nation’s worst oil spill, Dudley said there would be signs that the nature of the operation was changing. Miles of boom were being withdrawn from coastlines, and fewer cleanup crews in hazmat suits would be seen on beaches no longer soiled by oil.
“So you’ll probably see that kind of a pullback. But commitment, absolutely no pullback,” he pledged.
Dudley will take over as BP’s chief executive officer on Oct. 1, when Tony Hayward, who was widely criticized in the U.S. for his handling of the crisis, hands over the reins. It is the first time that an American has been named to run the London-based company.
Hayward, in his first interview since resigning, told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that he would have liked to stay in his post. “I became a villain for doing the right thing,” he said.
“I didn’t want to leave BP, because I love the company,” said Hayward, adding that “because I love the company, I must leave BP.”
“BP can rebuild faster in America without Tony Hayward as its CEO,” he said.
BP announced Friday it was hiring disaster-management consulting firm Witt Associates — called in after hurricanes Katrina, Gustav, and Ike — to help draw up a long-term recovery plan for the Gulf.
“I’ve seen the anguish and the pain that people have suffered after disaster events … and I’ve seen time and time again after large events … I’ve seen communities come back stronger and better,” company boss James Lee Witt said.
BP also said Friday it will meet its pledge to set up a $100 million fund to help oil-industry workers who have lost their jobs as a result of a six-month moratorium placed on deepwater Gulf drilling. The first grants from the foundation would be made by Sept. 1, the company said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in another encouraging sign for Gulf residents, Louisiana reopened wide swaths of state fishing grounds closed in the wake of the spill after testing the seafood, the state said.
“Commercial fishing will reopen for finfish and shrimp in portions of state waters east of the Mississippi River,” the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said.
But some 7,539 square miles of federal fishing waters still remain off-limits.
