Highlights: Lawmakers grill big oil executives on spill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The following are highlights from a U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing on Tuesday on the future of the oil industry's drilling and safety practices following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Top executives from the five largest oil companies are trying to pass the blame as oil from the BP Plc disaster continues to spew into the Gulf.

Lawmakers will hear testimony from Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil; John Watson, chairman and chief executive of Chevron; James Mulva, chairman and chief executive of ConocoPhillips; Lamar McKay, president and chairman of BP America; and Marvin Odum, president of Shell Oil Company.

LATEST QUOTES

OIL INDUSTRY RESPONSE CAPABILITIES TO A MAJOR SPILL

Tillerson: "When these things happen, we are not well equipped to deal with them. We've never represented anything different than that. That's why emphasis is always on preventing these things from occurring, because when they happen we are not very well equipped to deal with them."

ESCROW FUND TO PAY LIABILITY CLAIMS

McKay: "I cannot comment on whether there will be a fund set aside or not. We've made it clear that the company stands behind these commitments. We've got a strong balance sheet. We've got a strong company. We intend to stand behind those. I cannot commit today, one way or the other, on whether a fund would serve that in furtherance."

EARLIER QUOTES

DID BP MAKE MISTAKES?

Tillerson: "We would not have drilled the well the way they did."

Odum: "It's not a well we would have drilled."

LAWMAKER BLASTS BP FOR UNDERESTIMATING SIZE OF OIL SPILL

Markey: "We need you to admit that you knew or should have known very early on that this was not a spill of 1,000 or 5,000 barrels per day. They were your (underwater) cameras, your technology, your expertise, that the American people were relying upon and you got it completely wrong either to limit your liability or out of incompetence."

McKay: "We are sorry for everything the Gulf Coast is going through, we are sorry for that and the spill. We have provided every bit of data we have to the unified command to the government to every scientist that is working on this. We do not have the technology to measure that."

Markey: "I continue to believe that BP is still more interested in its liability than it is in the livability in the Gulf, and this hearing is just one further indication of that."

CLEANUP EFFORTS

BP will soon have six ships to remove oil siphoned off from its ruptured undersea well. McKay said two are already taking production from the well, while two more should be outfitted and in place in the next couple of weeks. The last two ships are expected to be functioning by mid-July.

McKay: "We will have a vessel called the Helix 4000 on location and working hopefully today that will be burning oil that is produced up to that vessel."

RESPONSE PLANS

Markey displayed each companies' oil spill response plan. He pointed out that all had the same picture of the same rig on it, and that only the color differed on the covers.

Markey also criticized that like BP, Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron included protection of walruses, which do not reside in the Gulf, in their plans. Additionally, several of the companies included the contact information of an expert who died four years ago.

Markey: "The only technology you seem to be relying on is a Xerox machine to put together your response plans."

U.S. DRILLING MORATORIUM

Exxon and Chevron said they would send their rigs to foreign waters due to the moratorium.

Tillerson: "This stuff is just too expensive to let it sit around."

Watson: "We will re-deploy rigs."

LAMAR MCKAY - BP AMERICA

"Companies operating in the Gulf have operated safely and reliably. But, the failure of processes, systems and/or equipment must be and can be addressed to restore America's confidence in the industry's ability to continue providing the resources consumers need."

REX TILLERSON - EXXON MOBIL

"This incident represents a dramatic departure from the industry norm in deepwater drilling," Tillerson said in prepared remarks.

He added, if oil companies properly designed offshore wells, built in layers of protective redundancy, properly inspected equipment and focused on safety, then incidents like the current Gulf oil spill "should not occur."

JOHN WATSON - CHEVRON

In prepared testimony, Watson tells lawmakers, "I believe the independent investigation will show that this tragedy was preventable."

JAMES MULVA - CONOCOPHILLIPS

In prepared testimony, Mulva said, "We are not in a position to speak about what went wrong at the Deepwater Horizon. The companies involved and the regulators will do that."

Mulva added any changes to energy policy must "recognize that we have a robust oil and gas industry that generates vital U.S. jobs, as well as substantial state and federal revenue from tax and royalty payments."

MARVIN ODUM - SHELL

In testimony, Odum tells lawmakers Shell follows strict safety standards. He adds offshore drilling is very "important" to U.S. supplies and workers.

"We remain confident in our drilling expertise and procedures, built on a foundation of multiple required safety barriers, proven methods and strict company standards."

REPRESENTATIVE EDWARD MARKEY - SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

"They will say a similar disaster could never happen to them. Yet it is this kind of blind faith -- which is the actual name of a rig in the Gulf -- which led to this disaster."

Markey pointed out the oil companies testifying earned nearly $289 billion in profits over the past three years, spending $39 billion to explore for new oil and gas. But he said the average investment in research and development for safety, accident prevention and spill response "was a paltry $20 million per year."

REPRESENTATIVE JOE BARTON - FULL COMMITTEE TOP REPUBLICAN

"You can't have a contingency plan that says cross your fingers and hope the blow out preventer works."

REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN - DEMOCRAT

"Time after time, BP appears to have taken shortcuts that increased the risks of a catastrophic blowout."

The companies submitted nearly identical "cookie cutter" strategies, including the "top kill" and "junk shot" techniques that failed to stem the flow of oil from BP's well, he said.

"This blowout happened at a BP well, but, if it occurred at an Exxon Mobil or Chevron well, they wouldn't have been any more prepared to respond."

REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL BURGESS - REPUBLICAN

"I'm concerned that this tragedy will lead Congress to do what it so often does and rush into writing legislation with really no thought to what the consequences will be."

REPRESENTATIVE BART STUPAK - DEMOCRAT

Stupak singled out Exxon Mobil for having a 40-page media response strategy, including pre-written talking points.

"The oil company response plans are great for public relations ... but these plans are virtually worthless when a spill actually occurs and that's exactly the kind of misplaced priorities that have led to this disaster."

THIS ITEM WILL BE UPDATED