BP CEO says oil spill blown out of proportion

Most scientists believe that the full effects of the BP oil disaster won't be known for some time. But BP wouldn't be the sort of company that created major oil spills if it didn't leap boldly into the breach. So the oil giant's newly minted CEO is apparently ready to lay down his own verdict: The whole incident has been overblown by the media, environmentalists and BP's oil industry rivals.

According to Reuters, CEO Bob Dudley -- tapped to replace gaffe-prone Tony Hayward back in July -- told a British business lobbying group Monday that his company was the victim of "a great rush to judgment" and that unwarranted "public fear was everywhere." The Mississippi-born Dudley did, however, offer complimentary words for the one group that remained steadfastly in BP's corner throughout the duration of the ordeal: the British.

"At the height of the crisis it made a big difference knowing we had such good friends at home," said Dudley, who last week announced that bonuses paid to BP employees in the fourth quarter would be based on the company's safety record.

In the spill's early days, when countless independent experts derided as gross understatement the BP flow estimate of 5,000 barrels per day, Dudley criticized outside estimates of 70,000 barrels a day as "[feeling] like a little exaggeration, a little bit of scare-mongering." Of course, the 5,000 barrels that Dudley stuck by as "a good estimate" proved to be the most off the mark. Government researchers eventually copped to a flow rate of 60,000 barrels per day. And long after the oil giant finally succeeding in capping its busted well on the floor of the gulf, oil may still be washing up on Louisiana's shores.

In his Monday address, Dudley also stressed a need for increased deepwater drilling, despite his company's recent follies: "We are one of only a handful of companies with the financial and technological strengths to undertake development projects in these difficult geographies. And it can be done safely. ... We, together with the rest of the industry and our regulators around the world, simply have to ensure that public confidence in deepwater drilling is restored."

(Photo of Dudley: AP)