Over three days of sharp questioning, a haggard-looking Tony Hayward shows flashes of anger and remorse as he defends his handling of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in a recent videotaped deposition obtained exclusively by The Daily. (Scroll below to view additional video clips.)
Attorneys representing several states and corporations that are suing BP over last year’s massive spill suggest that the former CEO was reckless when it came to safety, insensitive in his conduct following the tragedy and perjurious in his testimony before Congress.
When asked about the 11 men who died when the Horizon burst into flames on April 20, 2010, he notes his remorse, but admits he can’t remember all of their names. In the end, he is able to correctly name only one victim, Karl Kleppinger.
Stephen L. Roberts, an attorney for BP’s corporate partner Transocean, also drops a bombshell when he reveals that BP filed a legal pleading that referred to the 11 victims as “callous, indifferent and grossly negligent in causing this explosion.”
Roberts claims BP filed the pleading on April 20, 2011, the one-year anniversary of the day the men died in the explosion. “It was after I left the company. I’ve had no involvement in it,” says Hayward.
In a nasty exchange on day one of the deposition, plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Cunningham accuses Hayward of lying when he testified to Congress that BP was conducting “a full and complete investigation.”
“You proceeded to testify falsely under oath on multiple material issues, didn’t you, Dr. Hayward?” Cunningham asks.
“Objection!” shouts Hayward’s attorney, off-camera.
But attorneys believe they were able to show that BP failed to follow its own investigative procedures, neglecting to pursue possible mistakes by its leadership.
Cunningham points out that “a full and comprehensive investigation … would have required the executives to investigate themselves, wouldn’t it?”
Hayward responds: “We were trying to establish what was the cause of the accident. That’s what we did.”
In fact, BP’s own report, the “Bly Report,” concluded that erroneous decisions by “multiple companies and work teams” contributed to the disaster.
Hayward left the company in September 2010 and admits in the deposition that he never read the Presidential Commission’s report, which concluded that “most of the mistakes and oversights at [Deepwater Horizon] can be traced back to a single over-arching failure, a failure of management.”
— With Sarah Ryley and Shalini Sharma
WATCH MORE VIDEO
Video 2 - Speaks about the victims and the lawsuit filed by BP a year after the explosion claiming that the victims were negligent.
Video 3 - Discusses being in top leadership when BP was put on probation for another disaster when the Deepwater Horizon explosion occurred.
Video 4 - Admits BP did not have an external insurance policy against risks it was undertaking in deepwater drilling.