Oil giant BP today warned the financial impact on the group of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil leak would be 'severe'.
But embattled BP bosses told worried investors and pension savers they would 'meet our obligations' amid fears the group was preparing to slash its dividend payout.
In a briefing with BP shareholders and analysts, chief executive Tony Hayward said it would be another 48 hours before it is clear if latest attempts to contain the oil leak are working.
The group is taking fierce criticism of its response to the disaster from US President Barack Obama, who said he was 'furious' about the oil spill and accused BP of not responding quickly enough.
Dividends are seen as crucial for investors and Britain's pension funds. BP's dividend payments total $10.5 billion a year.
'We fully understand the importance of our dividend to our shareholders,' BP said.
'Future decisions on the quarterly dividend will be made by the board, as they always have been, on the basis of the circumstances at the time. All factors will be considered and the decision taken in the long term interests of the shareholders,' the company added.
'The financial consequences of this incident will undoubtedly be severe, but BP is a strong company and we have weathered many storms before,' Mr Hayward said.
Meanwhile, a senior BP official has said the company aims for the containment cap placed over the gushing well pipe in the Gulf of Mexico to stop at least 90% of the flow of oil spilling into the ocean.
'I think that's possible with this design,' the energy giant's chief operating officer Doug Suttles told US television.
Suttles was the first BP official to discuss the placement of the containment cap on the well, which has been gushing oil into the Gulf since April.
Using robot submarines, BP managed yesterday to shear away the gushing well pipe a mile below the ocean surface, then lowered the containment cap over the jagged hole left on the crippled wellhead assembly in its latest bid to curtail the oil flow.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen called the move a 'positive development' but 'only a temporary and partial fix'.
Once the containment cap is firmly in place over the wellhead, the plan is to start funnelling at least some of the escaping oil and gas into a large hose that would carry it from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to the surface, where it would be collected in ships and safely removed.
A third credit rating agency, Standard & Poor's has downgraded BP's credit rating. Two agencies downgraded the company's debt yesterday, reflecting assessments that the company faces lasting damage. Ratings agencies Moody's and Fitch Ratings downgraded BP's credit ratings yesterday and said they might cut them further on rising concerns over clean-up and legal costs.
Fitch, which in May admitted it had been wrong to assume that the impact of the spill on BP's finances would be eased by insurance, said clean-up costs could exceed its worst-case scenario of around $5 billion in any one year.
Yesterday the US government said it had sent a preliminary bill for $69 million to BP and 'other responsible parties' to cover oil spill costs. US President Barack Obama said last night that he is 'furious at this entire situation' in the Gulf because 'somebody didn't think through the consequences of their actions'.
