New BP Boss Decries 'Rush to Judgment'

Newly minted BP CEO Bob Dudley spoke out in defense of his company’s handling of the Gulf oil spill today, saying there had been “a great rush to judgment” on the part of the media and rival oil companies. “I watched graphic projections of oil swirling around the Gulf, around Florida, across and around Bermuda to England,” he said, according to MarketWatch, none of which happened. He expressed hope for a “balanced and informed judgment about what happened.”

He also reaffirmed that BP was committed to its Gulf business. “I didn’t become the chief executive of BP in order to walk away from the US,” he said. “BP won’t be quitting America.” That pronouncement comes on the same day that BP announced plans to sell off four of its deepwater Gulf wells, according to the Financial Times. BP said it had planned to sell the wells anyway, but had done so faster to pay spill expenses. (More British Petroleum stories.)