BP managing director takes over spill response

BP CEO Tony Hayward will turn over control of the company's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to managing director Robert Dudley, BP's chair said Friday.

Dudley, who was raised in Mississippi and currently oversees BP operations in the Americas and Asia, will take over daily operations related to closing the leak at BP's oil well off the coast of Louisiana, company chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told Sky News in an interview.

The company had already announced June 4 that Dudley would lead the long-term response to the oil spill once the leak had been stopped.

Svanberg's statement appeared to accelerate that timeline, as millions of litres of crude continue to gush into the Gulf.

"[Hayward] has been out there for eight weeks, and he is now handing over the … daily operations to Bob Dudley, and he will be more home [the U.K.] and be there and be here," Svanberg told Sky News.

"I think it has been a difficult period, and as long as we don't close the well and take care of this, there will be criticisms about many things. Right now, that is our focus — to make that happen."

He acknowledged that some of Hayward's comments — particularly, those that appeared to downplay the seriousness of the spill's consequences — clearly "upset people."

But he also appeared to defend Hayward.

"Here is also a man who has [done] over 100 hours of TV time and maybe 500 interviews," the Swedish-born Svanberg said in the interview.

"If you think about it, all the questions that he gets is all the time around the operations, and the well, and the design ... and the expectations, and 'How do we kill the well?' and 'What about junk shots and top kills?' and all of those words that none of us knew before that the whole world knows about right now.

"All of these questions, he is the right spokesman, or Bob Dudley, or somebody else on the management team."

Svanberg had been virtually out of sight since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, causing the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

He made a first appearance at a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday and plans now to expand his involvement, Sky News reported on its website.

"This has now turned into a reputation matter — financial and political — and that is why you will now see more of me," Svanberg said.

A BP spokesman in Houston, Tristan Vanhegan, said the "board still has confidence in Tony [Hayward]."