The BBC this morning reported that the CEO was currently negotiating the terms of his exit with the company's directors. Managing director Bob Dudley, the American currently in charge of the Gulf clean-up operation, is widely tipped to take over his post. A BP spokesman told the Independent on Sunday that a decision on Hayward's future would be taken at Monday's board meeting, when company bigwigs sign off on the firm's latest financial results. And Sky News suggested that the CEO's departure will be formally announced Tuesday, when BP unveils its second-quarter numbers -- expected to include interim profits of $7.7 billion, and news of a $30 billion fund to cover clean-up and compensation costs.
Earlier Sunday, BP spokesman Toby Odone seemed to downplay media speculation about Hayward's departure, saying he "remains BP's chief executive, and he has the confidence of the board and senior management."
While many Gulf residents will be glad to see Hayward go, his resignation isn't popular with a large number of BP senior executives, according to the Independent. The paper noted that many corporate high-ups would rather see the rarely-seen Swedish chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, fall on his sword. Inside sources told the Independent that they believed it was Svanberg's silence and lack of leadership in the weeks following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig -- which killed 11 workers -- that allowed the crisis to turn into a PR catastrophe.
However, a succession of public gaffes has made Hayward's position untenable. He found himself painted as the villain of the Gulf disaster after joking to reporters that he wanted his "life back" and claiming the spill was "relatively tiny" compared to the "very big ocean" -- ill-chosen words that led President Barack Obama to declare he would have fired the unsavvy oil chief. And a decision to attend a yacht race in southern England in late June, while up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day were still vomiting into the Gulf, triggered even more outrage. Soon after that incident, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told ABC, "Tony Hayward isn't going to have a second career in PR consulting."
Hayward's poor performance hasn't dented his leaving package, though. The Telegraph reports that he will receive at least $1.6 million -- equivalent to one year's salary -- when he quits BP. The 52-year-old CEO has also accumulated a hefty £10.8m pension pot during his 28 years at the company, which will pay him £584,000 a year when he turns 60.