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Exec says BP could plug well by end of July
BP could plug its gushing Gulf oil well by the end of July, ahead of a projected target of August, if weather conditions permit and the drilling of relief wells keeps going smoothly, the newly appointed executive in charge of the company's response said Friday."We are ahead of schedule, but all it takes is one storm, and we have to move off of station," Bob Dudley, CEO of BP's newly created Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. "I think it's not unreasonable to think one of those might happen, and then we're into August again. That's why August is probably a higher probability." Still, even the hint of an earlier-than-expected capping of BP's Macondo well comes as a rare bit of good news to a national crisis in dire need of it -- and Dudley's job is to make sure there's more such news to come. In the nearly two weeks since he took over responsibility for the spill from embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward, Dudley has moved swiftly to improve the British oil giant's handling of all aspects of the Gulf disaster, from trying to speed up payment of claims to out-of-work fisherman to making sure the requests of local Gulf officials are being heard. "I am from the U.S. I grew up on the Gulf Coast. I've got a passion for it, and I think people saw that. I hope I can help," said Dudley, sitting in a small conference room at BP's sprawling office complex in west Houston. Dudley, a board member and former head of BP's joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, had been selected for the job early in the crisis. An engineer with 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry, who grew up in Hattiesburg, Miss., he seemed a perfect fit. And he was supposed to take over once the well was capped. But on June 23, BP announced Dudley was stepping in immediately and Hayward would return to London - fueling speculation that Hayward is on his way out and Dudley could be the next CEO. Posted by: Fred 2010-07-04 |
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