Exxon Mobil at odds with BP over spill

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HOUSTON, March 10 (UPI) -- BP has done a disservice to the oil industry by leveling blame for the Deepwater Horizon accident in April on the entire energy sector, Exxon Mobil said.

BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley, in a speech at an energy conference in Houston, said that "anyone who does not believe there will be industry-level changes after the Deepwater Horizon accident is, I think, being unrealistic."

Dudley took over from embattled BP chief Tony Hayward as the British energy company tried to repair its image after the deadly April accident caused one of the worst oil spills in the history of the industry.

Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson told the Houston audience that Dudley did a "great disservice" to the oil industry by suggesting the Deepwater Horizon accident had wide-ranging effects, the Financial Times reports.

Tillerson blamed "a breakdown of management oversight" of operations in the Gulf of Mexico that "rests in the lap of one company," namely BP.

A U.S. federal panel in its report released in January found the failure of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico "can be traced to a series of identifiable mistakes made by BP, Halliburton and Transocean that reveal such systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry."

"When you do things the proper way, these types of tragedies do not happen," the Tillerson was quoted as saying.