Chevron has the means to prevent an oil blowout

US energy giant Chevron has in place policies and procedures that might have avoided the blowout that caused a massive oil spill in the US Gulf Coast, the Wall Street Journal said, citing an interview with Chief Executive John Watson. "This incident was preventable," Watson told the Journal.

Chevron has also opposed the deep water drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster that has caused a huge oil spill, the Journal said.

On May 27, the Obama administration had ordered a halt in new drilling permits after BP's oil rig, owned by Transocean, exploded and sank in the Gulf in April. The rig sank two days later. The accident, which killed 11 people, has triggered a huge oil spill that is threatening an environmental and economic disaster along the US Gulf Coast. In the early days of the Gulf disaster, the oil industry mostly presented a united front. But as the crisis has dragged on, companies have begun to distance themselves from BP, according to the Journal.

Watson and the chief executives of several other big oil companies are almost certain to try to draw distinctions when they face questions from a congressional panel on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, lawmakers hold a hearing in Washington with all the big oil companies including the head of BP's US operation.

On Thursday BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who is expected to attend Wednesday's White House meeting, will testify to the US House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.