Embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward defied expectations and didn’t resign Monday. Instead, he’s being shuffled off to Russia, where he will direct BP’s role in TNK-BP, a joint venture considered one of BP’s plum projects . Hayward may appear to be escaping culpability for leading a wreck less business that caused the oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico 2010, and then botching the oil spill response. But before he flies to Moscow, some U.S. senators would like to ask him some personal questions about a BP-Libya oil deal they think influenced the release of a convicted terrorist.
Tony Hayward’s Russia assignment is ironic
BP boots Tony Hayward from the corner office in October. The Associated Press reports that Robert Dudley is his likely replacement. Dudley is the man who swapped out Hayward as BP’s director of the oil spill response. Hayward will serve on the board of BP’s Russian venture TNK-BP. In an ironic twist, Dudley led TNK-BP until he got on someone’s bad side and had to leave Russia in 2008.
Will Hayward fare better at TK-BP than Dudley?
If Tony Heyward’s new post leading BP’s partnership with Russian oil barons is indicative, his business nevertheless regards him highly, perhaps if most Americans and United States politicians don’t. Accounting for 25 percent of its total production, the Washington Post reports how the TNK-BP venture is one of BP’s crown jewels. But Robert Dudley’s experience proves the post could be a headache. Dudley was forced to leave Russia after a fight with Russian shareholders.
Did Hayward negotiate to release a terrorist in exchange for oil?
United States of America Senators Bob Menendez and Kirsten Gillibrand want to haul Tony Hayward before Congress, quite possibly though he is stepping down. The New York Observer reports that they senators want to hear from Hayward at a July 29 hearing to the release of the Lockerbie bomber. For weeks, the senators are pressuring U.K. officials to launch an investigation into whether the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset al-Megrahi is related to a BP-Libya oil deal. Hayward may have had a role in negotiations with the Libyans during that deal, Menendez said.
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