Oil for Terrorists: BP CEO Tony Hayward's Odds of Surviving Are Falling Daily

source http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10005228/oil-for-terrorists-bp-ceo-tony-haywards-odds-of-surviving-are-falling-daily/

An Irish bookmaker is taking bets Tony Hayward won't last the year running BP, due to his egregious mishandling of the oil spill in Gulf waters. New allegations of an 'oil for terrorist' plot involving BP and Omar Khadafi's Libya could make the embattled chief executive an odds-on favorite for "early retirement."

The Paddy Power betting agency has quoted odds of 2-9 that Hayward leaves by December 31, compared to 8-11 odds listed on July 1.

The payout could become even less attractive in coming weeks, if Hayward finds himself reluctantly — again — up against the U.S. government: on July 13, the Financial Times reported the Senate foreign relations committee is considering a request from Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for an investigation into whether BP helped to secure the early release of Lockerbie terrorist Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber freed by Scottish authorities last year. Guess who was an integral part of exploratory drilling talks with Libya — and was chief executive when the alleged influence peddling went down?

Hayward is currently recovering from beat downs he suffered during the first three months of the oil spill, after an explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20. BP has attempted to control the spill narrative from the get-go, from the purchase of search terms on Google to media restrictions at spill zones.

Ripping pages from any college textbook on crisis management, early on the board pushed Hayward center stage — to be BP's public voice and face. Ironically, personality traits that served him well during his climb to the apex of BP's executive food-chain — a remarked absence of humility and an excess of hubris — betrayed him during the Gulf oil spill.

No image makeover or advertising campaign could ever undo myopic quotes uttered by Hayward early on:

What the hell did we do to deserve this? Hayward remarked to other senior executives at London headquarters. (NYT, April 29)

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. (The Guardian, May 14)

We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused their lives. There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back. (CNN, May 30)

On June 20, the board elbowed a wearied Hayward away from the spotlight, after news items circulated of him taking a vacation day away from the Gulf of Mexico spill. Reporters had spotted him aboard his $270,000 yacht (with his son), attending the Isle of Wight boat race. Guess its only okay for President Obama to take downtime, like golfing or going on another extended family vacation during the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

BP's chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, told Sky News television in Britain that Hayward handed off daily operations to managing director Robert Dudley.

On July 14, bookmaker Paddy Power quoted odds of 7-4 that Dudley would replace Hayward as BP's permanent new chief executive by Jan. 1.

With Dudley fronting the cameras, Hayward was sent packing — afar from spying photographers' lenses: a "working visit" to Azerbaijan, pretend stuff on briefing dignitaries on already planned South Caucus pipeline projects for the region. Then again, Hayward could use practice at feigning interest.

Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.  ~ Michael Corleone, "The Godfather: Part III"

U.S. senators are looking for evidence of a quid pro quo — any signs BP brokered the early release of Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer convicted back in January 2001 for his role in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, in exchange for lucrative Libyan offshore exploration contracts.

Hayward was in his first year as chief executive officer when BP and its Libyan partner, the Libya Investment Corporation (LIC), signed a major exploration and production agreement, worth, at a minimum, $900 million, with "significant additional appraisal and development expenditures upon exploration success."

How many quid do you want to bet on Dudley becoming the next BP chief executive?