Oil execs say ocean drilling must go on

LONDON, June 22 (UPI) -- Steve Westwell, chief of staff of British oil giant BP said the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster should not interfere with long-term oil exploration.

Giving a speech in London after BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward pulled out due to a busy schedule, Westwell said, "We must not let it (the oil spill) deter us from the wider, longer-term task of providing secure, sustainable, affordable energy for people around the world."

Steve Newman, president of Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded April 20, said President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling was "arbitrary," The Times of London reported Tuesday.

At the event, the World National Oil Companies Congress, Shokri Ghanem, head of Libya's National Oil Corp., said the oil spill, estimated to be spewing 60,000 barrels of oil into the gulf each day, was "exaggerated somewhat."

"In a way, while it is a real tragedy, in another way it is exaggerated somewhat," he said.

Westwell said BP would accept responsibility "as defined under U.S. legislation," but also decried the media's response to the oil spill.

"In the current heated atmosphere, words are easily taken out of context," he said.