After the meeting, BP chair Carl-Henric Svanberg said BP would meet what he called the company’s "legitimate responsibilities."

Carl-Henric Svanberg: "BP, we have always met our obligations and responsibilities, and we have made clear, from the first moment of this tragedy, that we will live up to all our legitimate responsibilities. We have agreed today with the President a framework that should assure the American people that we mean — we mean what we say. We will look after the people affected, and we will repair the damage to this region, the environmental damage to this region and to the economy."

In remarks that immediately drew criticism, Svanberg went on to say that, like President Obama, BP cares about what he called the "small people."

Carl-Henric Svanberg: "He comes across as a — he is frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies who don’t care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people."

Svanberg later apologized for his remarks, saying he misspoke.