Aftermath Of The Oil Spill: BP CEO Discusses How Company, Industry Has Changed In Last 5 Years

It has been five years since the BP plc (ADR) BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf coast. BP CEO Bob Dudley was on CNBC recently to discuss how the spill has changed BP and the oil industry overall.

Building Trust

Dudley was asked if BP has won public confidence and trust. He replied, “We keep working on it every day. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary. The company is completely transformed, how we structured [with] the focus on safety, standards we brought in. I think we actually changed the industry and a huge commitment to the Gulf, we have been maintaining it for five years.

A Changed BP

“I think we changed the structure of our whole global organization in terms of the way we run our upstream business. We put safety standards all around the globe,” Dudley said. “We work with governments all over the world to bring the learning from it and change the standards.”

“The U.S. government just came out with new drilling standards in the Gulf -- it’s more or less what we changed inside of BP and I am really proud of the way everybody in the company has worked to push through all these changes.”

Industry Responds

On the changes in regulations and industry post the spill, Dudley said, “Well, it has to be. This is what the industry needs to do around the world. These are changes that I think, like every industry you go through an industrial accident changes everything and the whole industry responds, that’s what’s happening.”

“New factors at work now in the industry $100 oil, to $50 oil -- it’s got to remain profitable and I am sure the industry will work through it.”