Outgoing BP Exec denies claims

The outgoing chief executive of British Petroleum (BP), Tony Hayward is denying that cost-saving was the reason his company placed only one blowout preventer on the well that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.



The incident has been described as one of the worst oil spills in US history.



According to Hayward, the blowout preventer that failed should have functioned and the industry needs to understand why it did not.



Another BP executive Bernard Looney is also supporting Hayward.



Looney says had the blowout preventer worked as it was designed to, the consequences of the April explosion on the Deepwater Horizon could have been very different.



The BP executives were testifying before a British parliamentary committee investigating the implications of the Gulf oil disaster on deepwater drilling.



Meanwhile, Hayward has also said there is no evidence that chemicals used to disperse the oil have entered the food chain.



The Energy and Climate Change Committee is looking at the British government's refusal to impose a moratorium on deepwater drilling in Britain and whether existing safety and environmental standards need updating in light of the massive spill.