Oil Business Changes

Robert Dudley says that they are taking all necessary precautions to prevent another deep water oil-spill (similar to the one we suffered last year).

“I think it would be a mistake to dismiss our experience of the last year simply as a ‘black swan,’ a one-in-a-million occurrence that carries no wider application for our industry as a whole,” Mr. Dudley told oil executives at a conference here. “I believe the industry also has a responsibility to change.” Mr. Dudley has sold billions of dollars in assets to pay for damages from the Gulf accident. He has put up for sale half of BP’s refining assets in the United States, including the giant Texas City refinery where 15 workers were killed in a 2005 explosion, in an effort to raise $5 billion. But he has also tried to guide the company on a renewed growth path. Mr. Dudley has lined up more than 30 projects around the world, including in Russia, India and Canada.