Outgoing BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward declared in a web cast Tuesday that the Gulf of Mexico oil well disaster represents a failure for the deepwater oil and gas drilling industry, not just for BP.

“The industry needs to re-evaluate safety,” he said. “Everyone will re-evaluate the business model to reduce risk associated with deepwater drilling.”
BP maintains that it alone does not deserve all the blame for the accident, and it intends to pursue legal action to have drilling partners share in the cost of containment and cleanup.

Those partners include Transocean, which operated the rig; Cameron, which built the blowout preventer that failed to shut down the well; and Halliburton, which cemented the oil drill into place.

“It is clear the accident was the result of multiple equipment errors and human error involving many companies,” Hayward said.