Tony Hayward is out — at least in his role as BP’s Gulf oil spill frontman.
BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said in an interview with Sky News that the embattled BP CEO, who’s come under fire for saying all sorts of insensitive-sounding things over the last two months, is handing over daily operations in the Gulf to BP Managing Director Bob Dudley. Hayward will go back to the UK.
“He is now handing over the operations, the daily operations to Bob Dudley,” Svanberg said.
BP is portraying the move as something that’s long been in the works. BP tweeted this afternoon that they had “reiterated today that Bob Dudley would over time take over responsibility for Gulf business related to the #oilspill.” CNN also reported this afternoon that BP says Hayward is still in charge of the Gulf spill and that “nothing has changed.”
Svanberg acknowledged today that this has “been a difficult period” and that “it is clear Tony has made remarks that have upset people.”
And this:
This has now turned into a reputation matter, a financial squeeze for BP and a political matter and that is why you will now see more of me.
BP’s stock is now at its lowest level since the mid-90s.
Watch:
Editor’s Note: This post has been added to since it was first published.
