In the first testimony from a high-ranking BP executive, Mr McKay stressed that all those involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster should take some of the blame.
Despite declines in production volumes, high oil prices are helping BP generate a strong cash flow.
While the calibre of civil servants was "generally very high", the former BP boss said there was a lack of staff with commercial skills or expertise in handling major projects.
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An internal BP presentation from December 2007, early in Mr. Hayward's tenure, noted that there had been 10 "high potential" incidents at BP facilities in the Gulf since the start of that year, including one December case in which a worker suffered an electric shock but survived.
In the current U.S. political climate, BP could pay a high price for pleasing shareholders.
The BP settlement also ranks high against the biggest court verdicts in U.S. history.
Though Halliburton and Transocean could also face penalties, much of the criticism from environmentalists before the high-profile trial has focused on BP, the undersea well's owner.
In September 2008, a high-pressure natural gas pipeline operated by BP ruptured, sending two segments of pipe flying 900 feet across the tundra.
The high yield spread versus Treasuries is 162 basis points (bp) wider than it was when the economy was already one month into recession in the last cycle.
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There was so much that stood out from 2010: The BP oil spill, persistent rates of incredibly high unemployment, the lack of progress on global warming, record corporate profits on Wall Street with record pain on Main Street, people being thrown out of their homes and a deal to make the rich even richer by an extension of the Bush era tax cuts.
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Note, however, that the High Yield Master II is also a little more than 100 bp narrower than its historical average versus Triple-B corporates.
For instance, BP one of the stocks UBS cites for its high non-European exposure, is trading at 60% of the global average on a price-to-earnings basis which means it is 40% cheaper than its peers.
Chevron's admission that a spill from a high-pressure Shetland oil well could leak at a higher rate than BP's Macondo well (1, 500 metres below the surface) didn't help.
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Workers had "high incentive to find shortcuts and take risks, " says Ross Macfarlane, a former BP health and safety manager on rigs in Australia who was laid off in 2008.
Last year, AAR, which is owned by four Russian-born billionaires led by tycoon Mikhail Fridman, was unhappy with BP's attempt to form an exploration alliance with Rosneft and secured a High Court injunction blocking the plan.
The industry organisation insists that the country's big oil companies - BP, Caltex, Mobil and Shell - "do not profit from high crude oil prices", but are in fact "cushioning the Australian motorists from the full effects of rising crude oil prices".
In 2005 BP's Thunder Horse production platform in the Gulf experienced equipment problems that required high repair costs and set back production for three years.
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