Almost immediately after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, BP management realised that it would be vulnerable to questions about whether cost-cutting contributed to safety failures. The company went on the offensive, with Hayward asserting straight away that it was not responsible for the lapses of its contractors – despite the fact that the oil giant had designed the blown-out well, approved the rig and had supervisors on board with the ultimate say on how it was drilled. "This was not our accident. It was not our people, our systems or our processes," Hayward insisted.