BP to set aside $100 million for unemployed rig workers

HOUSTON: BP Plc said on Friday it will establish a $100 million fund to help drilling rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico who are unemployed as a result of the company's oil leak.

After BP's Macondo well ruptured on April 20, causing the worst US oil spill, the US government halted deep-water drilling for six months.

The moratorium, due to be lifted in November, has idled dozens of rigs in the Gulf and companies are moving vessels to work in other parts of the world.

The funds will be administered through the non-profit Baton Rouge Area Foundation in Louisiana and are not part of the company's $20 billion compensation fund it set up in June under pressure from President Barack Obama, a BP spokesman said.

On the other hand, incoming BP boss Bob Dudley Friday vowed the British energy giant would stand by Gulf residents for years to come, as it prepared to scale back clean-up efforts and move to a new phase.



Making his first trip to the region since he was named to take over the helm of the British energy giant, Dudley said with no oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for two weeks the company's focus was shifting to long term recovery.

"We've had some good news on the oil... but that doesn't mean we're done. We'll be here for years," Dudley told reporters in Mississippi, one of the five states hit by the massive oil spill.

BP next aims to drown the well in an operation dubbed a "static kill" in which mud and cement will be injected down through the ruptured wellhead via a cap installed on July 15.