BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Wednesday the company would suspend dividend payments in the second and third quarters, and cancel the first-quarter payment that was due on June 21, in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In brief comments to reporters at the White House, Svanberg said the meeting with Barack Obama was constructive.

“He’s frustrated because he cares about the small people….We care about the small people,” Svanberg said.

An April 20 explosion at the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 people and triggered a massive oil spill.

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