U.S. lawmakers accused BP on Monday of taking risky and repeated shortcuts on its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well, while President Barack Obama pressed the energy giant to swiftly compensate victims of the worst spill in U.S. history.

Setting the stage for a showdown with BP executives at congressional hearings starting on Tuesday, two Democratic lawmakers said the British company chose faster and cheaper drilling options in the Gulf of Mexico that "increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure." The usually clubby oil industry may fragment in front of Congress as top executives from BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell argue that deepwater drilling is safe if proper procedure is followed.

"This incident represents a dramatic departure from the industry norm in deepwater drilling," Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said in prepared testimony obtained by Reuters.

Millions of gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf since an April 20 explosion on an offshore rig killed 11 workers and ruptured BP's well. The spill has soiled 120 miles (190 km) of U.S. coastline, imperiled a multibillion-dollar fishing industry and killed birds, sea turtles and dolphins. The massive spill has overshadowed Obama's political agenda, eclipsing job creation and Wall Street reform. Both are key issues in November congressional elections in which Obama's fellow Democrats are expected to face a tough fight to hold onto their majorities in both houses.

Obama, on his fourth visit to the Gulf Coast since the crisis began, said he would press BP executives at a White House meeting on Wednesday to deal "justly, fairly and promptly" with damage claims from the spill. In New York, BP's U.S.-listed shares tumbled 9.71% on investor concern the company may give in to calls by U.S. politicians to suspend its quarterly dividend. In London, BP shares closed down 9.3%.

Under intense pressure from the Obama administration, BP unveiled a new plan on Monday to vastly boost the amount of oil it is siphoning off from its ruptured well. BP said it planned to send more vessels to the spill site to increase its capacity to capture oil from 15,000 barrels a day now to 40,000-53,000 barrels by the end of this month and 60,000-80,000 by mid-July.

‘Risky Procedures’

In a pivotal week in the 56-day-old crisis, Obama began a two-day visit to the Gulf coast. He will address the nation on Tuesday, before he meets BP executives for what a White House spokesman said would be a "very frank" encounter on Wednesday.

Ahead of the congressional hearings on Tuesday and Thursday, lawmakers Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak released a letter to BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward laying out a potentially damning account of the events leading up to the rig explosion.

"It appears that BP repeatedly chose risky procedures in order to reduce costs and save time and made minimal efforts to contain the added risk," their letter said. A BP spokesman declined to comment before the hearings.

BP Hires Banks

BP has faced a barrage of criticism over its handling of the cleanup and last week was confronted with a White House threat to widen its liabilities for the disaster. The company has lost more than 40% of its market value since the crisis began.

"The concern is that BP is going to cut its dividend and that's weighing on the stock," said Andy Fitzpatrick, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates, in Hinsdale, Ill.

BP has hired investment banks Blackstone Group LP, Goldman Sachs Group and Credit Suisse Group as advisers, a source familiar with the matter said. The source did not say what role the banks would play. Investment bankers generally advise companies on corporate strategy, including mergers and acquisitions and financings.

The spill has created an unprecedented financial, legal, regulatory and environmental crisis for companies that operate in the Gulf of Mexico, Moody's Investors Service warned in a report on Monday, saying it could be up to two years before oil production reaches pre-spill levels.

The Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico posed "uncertainties that could last well beyond this date for producers, drillers and service companies operating in the region," Moody's said. Obama announced the final five people he wants to join a commission to make recommendations for the future of offshore drilling - all environmentalists and academics with no clear representative of the oil industry.

Claims Payments

In his meeting with BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg on Wednesday, Obama will press for the company to set up an independently managed fund to pay oil spill damage claims. Speaking in Theodore, Alabama, Obama said the White House was already talking to BP about the fund and hoped agreement on a framework for claims payments would be reached by Wednesday. Gulf Coast residents have been complaining for weeks the BP claims process is too slow and that the money the company is paying out is too little to make ends meet. U.S. politicians have been calling on BP to scrap its quarterly dividend to ensure it has enough money on hand to pay the compensation claims and clean up the spill. BP's Hayward will make his first appearance at a congressional hearing on Thursday and is expected to face harsh questioning from lawmakers. As chief executive, Hayward is the public face of BP's response to the spill and a lightning rod for criticism that the company played down the scale of the disaster to reduce its potential liabilities.