ADIOS, AMIGO

From Robert Peston at the BBC:

Tony Hayward's departure as chief executive of BP has been inevitable for some weeks (see my note of June 20, "Hayward's departure: not if, but when").

That inevitability will be crystallised imminently: Mr Hayward is negotiating the terms of his departure, I am told by a senior BP source.

An announcement that he is going is likely to be made in the next 24 hours. And the strong likelihood is that he'll be replaced by his US colleague, Bob Dudley, who has been put in charge of the clean-up operation in the Gulf of Mexico.

One thing that we can all be sure of is that Hayward will walk away from BP a wealthy man. No worries about the dole for him. He'll be able to spend as much of his time as he likes watching his yacht race from the Isle of Wight, or anywhere in the world, without concern for his "image".

However, what will be bitter-sweet for Hayward is that evidence has emerged over the past few days that BP was less culpable for the disaster than many of its critics believe and that the charge of gross negligence against it may not stick.

The worst outcome for BP would have been proof that it cut corners in the design of well. But as I mentioned last week, the fact that the new cap on the well has staunched the flow of oil suggests that it is robust.

Peston paints a far rosier picture of BP's culpability than I'd accept. What would you call the decisions to skip a series of safety tests (not just one) and to ignore a series of warnings (not just one) that all was not right with the well, if not culpability? Let's not forget that 11 men died, and 17 were injured, and that oil gushed (not spilled!) into the Gulf of Mexico for over 90 days creating an enormous environmental disaster.

The blame game amongst the corporations continues, with BP blaming Transocean and Halliburton, and Transocean and Halliburton kicking the ball back to BP. Round and round the blaming goes, and where it will stop, nobody knows.

We'll see what kind of golden parachute Tony Hayward manages to negotiate before he jumps, or rather is pushed from the leadership of BP.

In the end, we can blame BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and the US government, but we must also look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we are ready to kick our addiction to dirty energy sources. What we are willing to give up to have clean energy?

UPDATE:



BP Gulf command center

Thanks to Lapin in the comments.

UPDATE 2:

The Telegraph gives us a hint as to what Hayward's severance package may look like.

The 53-year-old’s pension pot will pay out £584,000 a year when he turns 60, but the terms of his departure from BP could allow him to draw down the pension earlier.
The BP board is eager to avoid further political criticism but Mr Hayward is believed to want the severance deal to reflect his 28 years of service to the company, which could run into millions.

However will Tony make ends meet?