BP Complaints

BP’s chairman revealed Friday that the company’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, would be handing oversight of drilling operations in the Gulf to another BP official. This comes after a heavily-criticized appearance before a Congressional hearing Thursday on the disastrous oil spill. The oil company’s chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told Sky News that the embattled CEO is to have a changed role in dealing with the oil spill, according to a report on the British publication’s website. “He is now handing over the operation to Bob Dudley,” Svanberg to Sky News. Dudley has been the managing director of the oil giant since 2009. More: This comes after a contentious hearing Thursday in which Hayward appeared less-than forthcoming to lawmakers probing the CEO for answers on the nation’s most devastating ecological disaster. Testifying as oil still surged into the Gulf of Mexico and coated ever more coastal land and marshes, Hayward declared during Thursday’s hearing, “I am so devastated with this accident,” “deeply sorry” and “so distraught.” Yet the oil man disclaimed knowledge of any of the myriad problems on and under the Deepwater Horizon rig before the deadly explosion, telling a congressional hearing he had only heard about the well earlier in April, the month of the accident, when the BP drilling team told him it had found oil. “With respect, sir, we drill hundreds of wells a year around the world,” Hayward told Republican Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas. “Yes, I know …