BP chief executive Tony Hayward has been accused of "stonewalling" and refusing to discuss questionable drilling practices that led up to the catastrophic Gulf Coast oil spill.
Appearing for the first time before the US Congress, Mr Hayward insisted that BP makes safety a high priority.
But he refused to answer repeated questions about BP's drilling practices, or whether those procedures saved the company money while increasing the risk of accidents.
California Democrat Henry Waxman told Mr Hayward he was "stonewalling" and had been "irresponsible" in refusing to discuss what may have led to the oil spill.
Mr Hayward said he was unaware of the drilling activities at the well and could not "pass judgment on those decisions".
Shortly before Mr Hayward read a prepared statement to the House panel, a woman identified as Diane Wilson shouted to him from the back of the room: "You need to be charged with a crime." She was grabbed by Capitol police and taken from the room.
Mr Hayward said the April 20 explosion and sinking of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig, in which 11 people died, "never should have happened - and I am deeply sorry that they did".
Mr Waxman told the BP executive that in his committee's review of 30,000 items, there was "not a single e-mail or document that you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well".
