BP says CEO Hayward to step down

BP CEO Tony Hayward will step down & take a job with TNK-BP, the company's joint venture in Russia.

AAP Images

Related links

• BP faces tough shareholder crowd
• BP posts $US5.62-billion profit

BP has announced chief executive Tony Hayward will leave the troubled energy giant in October.

He will be replaced by Bob Dudley, currently in charge of the Gulf oil-spill clean-up operation.

"BP today announced that, by mutual agreement with the BP board, Tony Hayward is to step down as group chief executive with effect from October 1, 2010," it said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that Hayward would be nominated as a non-executive director of TNK-BP.

"He will be succeeded as of that date by fellow executive director Robert Dudley."

Hayward - who has committed a series of PR blunders since the crisis began - leaves with a pay-off of one year's salary - STG1.045 million ($A1.79 million) - and an STG11 million ($A18.87 million) pension.

He will step down on October 1 but remains on the BP board until the end of November and has been put forward as a non-executive director of the firm's TNK-BP Russian joint venture.

BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said the firm was "deeply saddened" to lose a chief executive whose success "was so widely and deservedly admired".

But he added that the Deepwater Horizon explosion - which left 11 workers dead and caused the Gulf of Mexico oil spill - had been a "watershed incident".

"It will be a different company going forward, requiring fresh leadership supported by robust governance and a very engaged board," Svanberg said.

Hayward first joined the company in 1982 and has been chief executive since 2007.

Before the spill he had been credited for reviving the fortunes of the oil giant.

Hayward said: "The Gulf of Mexico explosion was a terrible tragedy for which - as the man in charge of BP when it happened - I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie."

He added: "BP will be a changed company as a result and it is right that it should embark on its next phase under new leadership."