BP oil spill: British diplomatic damage control efforts revealed

British diplomats in Washington made immediate attempts to limit the political damage following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act reveal.

Embassy officials clearly realised – well before the full magnitude of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico became evident – that BP's leaking oil well had the potential for far-reaching political and economic effects in America.

The documents suggest that an early priority was to avoid a backlash against British interests. "We need to be active and empathetic," the ambassador, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, wrote in a memo on 30 April 2010, 10 days after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. He asked if British government agencies were offering assistance.

A consular official in Houston was even more explicit on the need for damage control. "Is there discussion about taking some steps to distance ourselves from the problem or mount a media response campaign?" the 24 May memo said. "If we need to ramp up activity we can." Both memos were among documents obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian.

Sir Nigel was also intent on opening a direct line of communications with Tony Hayward, then BP chief executive. He pushed repeatedly for a meeting or at least a telephone call. Hayward proved hard to pin down – to Sir Nigel's evident annoyance. "Realise pressure on him but not unreasonable," the ambassador wrote on 30 April after efforts to schedule a meeting failed.

He was told that embassy officials had made it clear that Hayward would have a sympathetic audience. An embassy official, recounting a conversation with BP's lobbyist in Washington, David Nagel, said: "I emphasised that we understand that they must be under considerable pressure and explained the main intent of the call to offer our continued support in what must be an extremely difficult time."