Louisiana deep oil drilling disaster

[Jan Klimkowski]

Hayward - stil utterly clueless.

Still totally deluded.

Still filthy rich and set up for life.

Tony Hayward: BP was 'a model of corporate social responsibility'

Outgoing chief executive's comments likely to inflame US public opinion as he defends oil group's response to rig disaster

BP formally confirmed today that it had axed its boss Tony Hayward in an attempt to appease mounting anger in the US but risked undermining the move by insisting it had been a "model of corporate social responsibility".

In further comments unlikely to go down well in Washington, Hayward said he had been "demonised" in the US, adding that he might be "too busy" to attend future US hearings into the disastrous Gulf oil spill.

Explaining his decision to leave the group he has led for three-and-a-half years, Hayward said: "I believe this tragedy will leave BP a different company. I believe for it to move on in the United States it needs new leadership and it is for that reason I have stood down as the CEO. I think BP's response to this tragedy has been a model of good social corporate responsibility. It has mounted an unprecedented response."

The same message was given by Bob Dudley, the BP director currently in charge of the Gulf clean-up who will take over the top job from Hayward in two months.

Dudley, who will become BP's first American boss, described the company's reaction to the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon as an "unprecedented corporate response" adding that very few companies could have done what it did.

And the future chief executive said the accident was "very complex", caused by multiple failures of equipment and triggered by "a number of companies" rather than just issues associated with BP.

Asked whether Hayward had been unfairly treated by US public opinion, Dudley praised Hayward's leadership, adding: "I think that time will show whether that has been fair or not." He later said he expected his colleague's reputation to be restored but declined to say whether Hayward could eventually get a wider role in addition to the one he will be nominated for as a non-executive director at the company's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.

Hayward himself said it was pointless to worry about whether his departure was fair or not, adding that "life is not fair". His exit was in the best interests of BP because he had been demonised by the Gulf accident, he explained.

Hayward accepted some of the gaffes he had made such as wanting to "get his life back" had damaged the oil company.

"It may not have been a great PR success. You can argue about whether it could ever have been a great PR success, operationally we capped the well and cleaned up a hell of a lot of the oil."

Hayward was contrite when asked whether he personally could have done anything differently. "Was I close to perfect? Absolutely not. Did I make some mistakes? Of course I did. With the benefit of hindsight would I have done anything different? Of course."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/...onsibility