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Has BP done the right thing?

| Tuesday, 7 July 2010 | 18:05 - 19:00 GMT

"There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would love my life back."

Well it it IS over for beleagured BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward and he will have his life back because he'll be leaving his post in October. He'll be replaced by Bob Dudley, another BP executive who is also American.

The 53 year old BP "lifer" hasn't had the best of times of late - apart from the leak at the Deepwater Horizon rig causing a monumental environmental disaster- there were the gaffes - the yachting race when the oil was still pouring into the sea for example (see pic) and this quote from an interview with the Guardian..
The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.

He's now about to fall on his sword - or be pushed out - depending on your view.

So is that an end to the matter ? Have BP and Tony Hayward done the right and decent thing ? Or should he have stayed to clean up the mess he presided over ?

hudsonette in New York thinks so, tweeting: Why are they letting Tony Hayward leave? They should put him to work cleaning up the mess he made-scrubbing birds, picking up tarballs.

According to James Herron at Dow Jones, analysts think sacrificing Hayward and choosing Dudley means BP's top priority is restoring the company's reputation in the US.

But activists from campaign group Greenpeace have shut down BP petrol stations in London because they want the company to be more environmentally responsible. Executive director John Sauven says:

We've shut down all of BP's stations in London to give the new boss a chance to come up with a better plan. They're desperate for us to believe they're going 'beyond petroleum'. Well now's the time to prove it.

And writing in Dallas Jacquielynn Floyd thinks:

we have more important work to do than smirk over Hayward's pending dismissal. We need to make sure that our regulatory apparatus is awake and functioning and that the oil industry can prove it's prepared to deal with disaster before the fact, not three months after.

Does BP need to make more radical changes or is replacing its chief executive enough?

Your comments

  1. Comment sent via Facebook

    Maitin Rhode: Well you have to blame someone, even if they are not the most responsible party. As was said before, much easier to send one guy down than to actually fix the corporate culture which allowed the problem to happen in the first place.

  2. Comment sent via Facebook

    Richard Gaskin: all the time all was going well for both BP and American Stock holders and money continued to pour in ,nothing was a problem ,as soon as cracks appeared ,in the structure as well as in the stocks and shares dipping then America under pressure had to show they were doing something about it ,just another merry go round greed chasing greed and at whos exspense THE normal guy on the street

  3. Comment sent via Facebook

    Don Robinson: easy to change leadership. But the entity and its practices will take much more work to change. its very tough to change the operating framework of a corporation. or change the bad habits of its many employees.

  4. Comment sent via Facebook

    Onyeka Nwigwe: To be frank, change of C E O is might not lead to change of C O E(Certificate of Exploitation) their policies should also be changed.

  5. Comment sent via Facebook

    Gabriel Njenga: It sure wasn't an easy task but he pulled it off. Most of you guys have been lead to believe that "executives" are evil. Everybody has become too stereotypical.

  6. Comment sent via Facebook

    Màtn Wéch: Snr bp(big problems, bright prospects or broken promises).bp has done its best,since hayward is quitting in october the dust shd clear and bp shd b given a chance 2 clean up the gulf and bring back the livehood of the families living around the gulf.

  7. Comment sent via SMS

    Mr haywood is not responsible for the leak he got bad advice from his advisors he deserves his contractual pension

  8. Comment sent via Facebook

    Jane Hore: But - Russia gets him, chaps! That should please some of you.

  9. Comment sent via Facebook

    Gavin Day: The decent thing would mean having him swim through the Gulf of Mexico before he gets his rather generous severance...

  10. Comment sent via Facebook

    Charles Wang: Sending Tony Hayward out to 'farm' is a symbolic concession by BP; however, if the culture of profit-intensive operational recklessness isn't moderated, relocating Tony would hardly be relevant.

  11. Comment sent via Facebook

    Eunice Sawe: Tony Hayward has had his cake and eaten it. The damage done under his watch is untold

  12. Comment sent via Facebook

    Michael Caudill: Having Hayward "step down" is politically expedient (too many heads would roll if all the guilty were held accountable). It is a gesture. Not a meaningful solution (much like the Toyota recall). Tougher standards need to be put in place and monitored by an international agency to protect the worldwide interests and waterway--independent of multinational manipulation and coercion.

  13. Comment sent via Facebook

    Ish Kafle: Its not as if he has ordered that caused the oil spill,it was a merely a complex accident.but truth is every disaster has fall guy and it was to be Hayward so he should be in jail or BP shold dump him out,strip away all his wealth, and le....

  14. Comment sent via Facebook

    Tazeen Ali: BP profit loss = $17bn Tony hayward golden parachute = pounds 20 million damage done = priceless.

  15. Comment sent via host

    We are on air discussing the exit of Tony Hayward. Has BP done the right thing?