BP's Hayward vows to pay all oil spill costs, assures shareholders

BP's top officials vowed Friday to meet all costs of the Gulf oil spill, which have exceeded $1 billion, while assuring shareholders that the company will bounce back and continue to grow. 

So far, BP has spent more than $1 billion on all costs related to the oil spill, and spending at that rate is expected to continue for some time "beyond successful completion of work to stop the flow of oil from the damaged well," BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told shareholders Friday. Any fines and penalties will add to the costs. 

The costs of containment, removal and clean-up are likely to be largely completed in 2010 but the longer-term costs of environmental mediation, claims and litigation are not unpredictable, and are expected to be sizeable and spread over many years, Svanberg and CEO Tony Hayward outlined on Friday. 

The White House sent BP a bill for $69 million on Thursday. 

BP is creating a stand-alone organization run by Managing Director Bob Dudley, to oversee the long-term response once the spill is over. 

"This step will ensure that we maintain focus on both the massive response effort and our duties towards our ongoing businesses," Hayward said. "I remain personally committed to making this right."

Hayward assured shareholders that the company will meet all of the spill's costs as well as obligations to "our employees, and to our other stakeholders, including hundreds of thousands of shareholders and millions more savers in mutual and pension funds, who rely on their investment in BP as part of their financial security and in many cases their retirement income."

"The financial consequences of this incident will undoubtedly be severe but BP is a strong company and we have weathered many storms before," he said. 

The company will "apply of the necessary resources to the aftermath, both in the clean-up operation and in remediation and payment of legitimate claims. These are our most critical and immediate tasks," Svanberg said. 

"It remains our aim as always to strike the right balance for shareholders between current returns through the dividend, sustained investment for long-term growth and maintaining a prudent gearing level. We will do all we can to protect and grow the value of the company in which you have invested," he said.