BP Confirms CEO Exit, Record Loss

Along with its second quarter financial report this morning, BP confirmed that Robert Dudley is taking over as CEO on Oct. 1. As expected, Tony Hayward will exit and assume a new post with BP's joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP. The oil giant also reported a $17.2 billion quarterly loss due to the oil spill, the biggest in British corporate history.

In a press release, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said: "The BP board is deeply saddened to lose a CEO whose success over some three years in driving the performance of the company was so widely and deservedly admired.

"The tragedy of the Macondo well explosion and subsequent environmental damage has been a watershed incident. BP remains a strong business with fine assets, excellent people and a vital role to play in meeting the world's energy needs. But it will be a different company going forward, requiring fresh leadership supported by robust governance and a very engaged board."

Svanberg continued, "We are highly fortunate to have a successor of the calibre of Bob Dudley who has spent his working life in the oil industry both in the US and overseas and has proved himself a robust operator in the toughest circumstances."

The company plans to sell assets for up to $30 billion over the next 18 months, and is taking a quarterly pre-tax charge of $32.2 billion related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which includes its $20 billion compensation fund.

“With the leak now capped we have reached a significant milestone,” stated Hayward. “This provides a firm basis for moving forward to reshape the company. By disposing of assets worth more to others than to BP we can better align our strategic footprint with our global strengths.”

“We expect we will pay the substantial majority of the remaining direct spill response costs by the end of the year. Other costs are likely to be spread over a number of years, including any fines and penalties, longer-term remediation, compensation and litigation costs."

BP "lifer" Hayward had branded himself (and BP) as putting safety first, an image erased by the accident in the Gulf.

As his successor, Dudley, a "non-lifer," will be the first American to run the company, "a sign of how the board hopes that even after the spill, the company still has a future in the US, where it has almost a third of its oil and gas reserves," observed the Financial Times.

Greenpeace activists this morning shut down 50 BP gas stations in London, with signs in the style of BP's graphics reading "closed. Moving beyond petroleum." The protesters' message: urging Dudley, called a "straight talker" by the Telegraph, to move away from "his predecessor's obsession with high risk, environmentally reckless sources of oil."

BP documents submitted to the U.S. Coast Guard outlined the scope of the Deepwater oil spill, now considered the worst in history, in the Gulf of Mexico.