Hayward Leaves BP With "Daunting" Challenges

As expected, BP CEO Tony Hayward is stepping down. BP's board met tonight and approved a plan for American Bob Dudley to succeed Hayward, a source told the Wall Street Journal. The BBC reported that Hayward "will get an immediate annual pension worth about £600,000 ($930,000) when he leaves in October."  

Hayward isn't severing ties with the oil giant, as sources indicated he will take on a non-executive director of TNK-BP Ltd., BP's Russian joint venture, which he was instrumental in creating. BP's Russian partners also backed Dudley's promotion to the CEO role, according to the Telegraph in the U.K.

Hayward's P.R. gaffes and low-key demeanor since the Gulf disaster, the company's plunging value and damning testimony about its actions leading to the Deepwater Horizon disaster kept the mild-mannered former geologist in the hot seat, despite the company capping the leaking well two weeks ago.

BP worked today to reconnect a drilling ship to a relief well that is hoped to end the leaks permanently. A separate effort to kill the damaged well, by pumping mud through the top, could start by Aug. 2.

Hayward's successor is tasked with restoring BP's tarred brand — as the Wall Street Journal put it, a "daunting to-do list" indeed.

The New York Times detailed the next CEO's "myriad challenges: dealing with the costs and legal consequences of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, repairing damaged relations with federal and state authorities, bolstering morale among BP employees and, perhaps critically, winning back investors. His job can be summed up simply as ensuring that BP survives its latest crisis and finds a way to move beyond it."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs commented that no matter who's in charge, "BP cannot and should not and will not leave the Gulf without meeting its responsibility to plug the well, to clean up the damage that has been caused, and compensate those that have been damaged."

The company is expected to confirm the CEO transition and update Gulf clean up costs in an earnings call tomorrow morning.

(Update: the BBC reports that BP is set to report a record loss, "expected to be one of the biggest in British corporate history.")