BP's 5 Most Burning Questions: The BP Conference Call

LONDON (TheStreet) -- Analysts had plenty of issues to raise with BP on its Tuesday morning earnings conference call, from discussion of the oil company's $32.2 billion charge taken in the second quarter to cover oil spill liabilities, to its plans to sell $30 billion in assets and reduce net debt as part of a leaner BP following the events in the Gulf of Mexico.

>>BP Takes $32 Billion Charge: Hayward Out

The following are 5 burning questions from the BP earnings call.

Question No. 1: Where does BP's internal review of the Macondo well accident stand and when will the public get a glimpse of it?

Outgoing BP CEO Tony Hayward said the investigation is at an "interim stage" and BP plans to make its interim report available to public by the end of August.

Questions about BP's review of the events leading up the oil spill also gave Hayward the chance to again defend BP against charges that it should bear the full cost of the oil spill liabilities -- it has billed its partner companies, including Anadarko Petroleum, more than $1.4 billion so far, which Anadarko has contested.

Hayward stressed the interim nature of the report due to lack of access to the failed blowout preventer, as well as Transocean and Halliburton personnel and records. There has been "a lack of access to some critical elements," Hayward said.

In the earnings press release, Hayward made a statement that he accepted responsibility as CEO of BP, but neither he nor BP was taking the blame. "I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie."

Hayward stuck to this line of argument, in spite of claims of gross negligence from partner companies like Anadarko, and in spite of claims made by other oil majors during congressional testimony that BP was a lone bad actor. "I think when the results of the investigation emerge, it will become evident that there was nothing unusual about the well design of Macondo, and many wells drilled by competitors have this well design, and it's simply not right to say it was a unique BP well design. That will emerge, along with many other things that will point to the Macondo accident as an accident for the deepwater drilling industry, and not for BP."