BP did not have all the equipment needed for stopping the leak from its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of the explosion on an oil rig six weeks ago, the company's chief executive admitted.

Speaking in Houston as engineers worked on their latest bid to trap the escaping oil, Tony Hayward said BP was looking for new ways to manage “l(fā)ow-probability, high-impact” risks such as the Deepwater Horizon accident. That bid suffered a setback yesterday when a saw became stuck during an operation to sever the leaking pipe.

“What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your toolkit,” Mr Hayward said in an interview. He accepted it was “an entirely fair criticism” to say that the company had not been fully prepared for a deep water oil leak.