BP chief heckled over oil disaster

A woman with what appeared to be oil smeared on her face and hands shouted "You need to go to jail," as Mr Hayward tried to address a US Congressional committee hearing.

He had earlier sat silently as a succession of US politicians lambasted BP for what they alleged to be "astonishing" corporate complacency.

When Mr Hayward eventually read his evidence, he said he was "personally devastated" by the explosion which killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig and the resulting oil spill. He went on: "I understand how serious the situation is – it is a tragedy."

BP would foot the entire clean-up bill, the chief executive said.

"I give my pledge, as the leader of BP, that we will not rest until we make this right. We are a strong company and no resources will be spared."

He said it was still "too early to say" what caused the incident.

But he added: "I'm here today because I have a responsibility to the American people to do my best to explain what BP has done, is doing and will do in the future to respond to this terrible accident.

"First, we are doing everything we can to secure the well and in the meantime contain the flow of oil."

Some of the work should be complete in August, he said.

"Simultaneously, we have been working on parallel strategies to minimise or stop the flow of oil.

"While not all of them have been met with success, it appears the containment effort is now containing about 20,000 barrels a day."

By mid-July this should rise to between 60,000 and 80,000 barrels a day, he said.

"Second, I have been clear that we will pay all necessary costs."

He insisted that the company would pay "all legitimate claims for losses and damage", adding: "These are not just words. We have already paid out more than 95 million dollars (64m)."

The under-fire BP chief had earlier endured more than an hour-and-a-half of strong criticism directed at both him and his company from a succession of members of the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Committee.

The hearing came a day after BP announced a 20 billion dollar (13.5bn) clean-up fund to compensate victims and the suspension of dividends to shareholders.

But it was not enough to abate the anger of US politicians.

The Democrat chairman of the committee, Henry Waxman, accused Mr Hayward of not paying "even the slightest attention to the dangers" at Deepwater Horizon.

This was despite the oil firm's drilling engineer warning that it was a "nightmare" rig just days before the April 20 accident.

"BP's corporate complacency is astonishing," Mr Waxman added.

Pennsylvanian Congressman Mike Doyle accused BP of "bad judgment at best and criminal negligence at worst".

He described the 20 billion dollar clean-up fund as "just the tip of the iceberg".

There was, however, some criticism of President Barack Obama's administration for strong-arming BP into yesterday's announcement.

Republican representative Joe Barton said it amounted to a "20 billion dollar shakedown".