I caught the opening statements of several oil company CEOs this morning. Most notable were those by ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and ChevronTexaco's John Watson.
Each of them took pains to criticize BP's inadequately-engineered drilling operation. It was quite clear that, in advance of a presidential address this evening focusing on the BP oil gusher, the industry and energy legislation, these two CEOs wanted to go on record, forcefully, stating that the BP mess is no accident.
From Tillerson's and Watson's comments, it was unmistakable that they view BP's operations as substandard and unsafe. They want to distance themselves from BP's approach, draw attention to their own, better safety records, and hopefully assist in heading off any damaging restrictions on deep-water drilling.
Commentators on CNBC referred to these CEOs 'throwing BP under a bus.' But that's not really quite true.
All that Tillerson and Watson did was provide their very informed opinions on the nature of the BP mess, i.e., it was the result of bad management and operations.
Even as I write this, various uninformed talking heads on CNBC are accusing the other oil CEOs as unwisely breaking ranks. One even cited Jack Welch, referring to some comment the former GE CEO was alleged to have made earlier today, or yesterday, that the execs must stick together because this is an industry problem.
No, it's not. That was Tillerson's and Watson's shared point. It's not an 'industry issue,' because nobody else in the deep-water drilling sector has managed to effect this sort of disaster.
If the Welch attribution is true, it just shows how far out of touch with reality Jack has become in recent years.
As I listened to the two prominent oil firm CEOs adamantly state their cases, it was obvious they were taking the opportunity, only hours before the scheduled presidential address, to give Congress and the viewing public their own, different view of events and reality.
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