The company posted a fact sheet on its website, taking responsibility for the response to the Deepwater Horizon spill and would pay compensation for legitimate claims for property damage, personal injury and commercial losses.
"We are responsible, not for the accident, but we are responsible for the oil and for dealing with it and cleaning the situation up," Chief Executive Tony Hayward said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." He said the equipment that failed on the rig and led to the spill belonged to owner Transocean Ltd., not BP, which operated the rig.
Guy Cantwell, a Transocean spokesman, responded by reading a statement without elaborating.
"We will await all the facts before drawing conclusions and we will not speculate," he said.