how the talking point flais out. john boehner says he disagrees with barton language. the republican leader doesn t necessarily agree with the shakedown via the fund. it will be interest interesting looking into campaign corrections and how many of those people who describe it as a shakedown are getting krik inting contributi oil industry and bp. from washington to the gulf coast where there s more reaction today to the company s latest apologies for the disaster. nbc s charles hadlock is in venice, louisiana. charles, a lot to talk about with folks in louisiana. what are you hearing so far in terms of the meeting at the white house and already tony hayward on capitol hill? reporter: well, contessa, this is a part of the country that the word rugged individualism is possibly coined. these people make their living off the water and the habitat that is now stained with oil. so they don t like those comments from the bp ceo that
through mr. dingle s questions. then we ll recess. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. hayward, you had two choices using single casing or tie-back. the risks are substantial associated with single casing, which is what bp chose. please answer yes or no. can you assure us that under oath that was not a decision made to save time and money? i wasn t part of that decision making process. i m sorry? i was not part of that decision making process. so i can t possibly know the basis on which that decision was taken. how much money was saved by using the single string casing? i believe the documents refer to a sum of i think $7 million to $10 million, and they also refer to the fact that the casing would have longer term integrity as a long string.
it s still disturbing to me we haven t had anyone from the federal regulatory side. we really need mr. salazar here, whoever the minerals and management people with were who approved that exploration plan that bp submitted that was woefully inadequate. shame on you mr. hayward for submitting it and shame will on us for accepting it. i ve got questions i do need to ask. bp unfortunately is not the first time you ve been p in front of our committee. in 2006 ole although you were not ceo in september of that year, i pulled the transcript last night and looked through it again. big oil spill in alaska had to do with not proper maintenance on the pipelines. and when you came in, you said you were going to focus like a laser beam on safety. certainly that had to be well welcome news after texas city, after the north slope accident. so what safety briefings do you get as your office of chief executive officer and who provides them to you?
that the highest priority is to stop the leak, and clean it up. that is what my focus is. mr. burgess for questions. thank you, mr. chairman. highest priority stopping the leak. let me ask you, mr. hayward, is your presence here today in any way interfering with that number one task of stopping the leak? it is not. thank you. let me ask you let me make a statement for clarification. i am not going to apologize to you t. was, after all, bp executives who were with on that rig. pp executives who ultimately could have made the call to stop operations when things became unsafe. and ultimately you are the person at the top and you are responsible. we lost 11 men on that rig. i don t feel apologies are in order. but, mr. chairman, i do have serious questions about the setup of this fund that we heard about from the white house yesterday. i hope this committee will stay engaged in the oversight of that activity as well.
additional $7 million to $10 million to the completion cost. the same document calls it the single string of casing the best economic case for bp. and the conclusion i draw from these documents is that bp used a more dangerous well design to save $7 million. what do you think about that? what s your response? i believe that document also highlights that the long-term integrity of the well would best be served by a long string. the long string is not an unusual well design in the gulf of mexico. as i understand say that again. the long string is not an unusual design in the gulf of mexico. well, as i understand mr mr. halliburton s witness who was interviewed by our staff, is only 2% to 10% of those wells might use this particular string. a fellow from exxon mobil and