BP chief: Gulf spill wasn't 'black swan'

HOUSTON, March 9 (UPI) -- BP CEO Robert Dudley said last year's spill in the Gulf of Mexico shouldn't be dismissed by the oil and gas industry as a one-in-a-million occurrence.

Dudley told an industry conference in Houston that "one company's calamity quickly becomes every company's concern," the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

"It would be a mistake to dismiss our experience of last year simply as a black swan, a one-in-a-million occurrence that carries no wider application for the industry as a whole," he said.

Dudley told the CERAWeek energy conference that his company has made safety a priority and rewards workers who call a halt to operations when they see problems.

He began his address Tuesday by apologizing for the BP oil spill, The Daily Telegraph reported.

He revealed that BP has shut down two offshore oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf and off Azerbaijan to repair faulty equipment.