BP Denies Report That Tony Hayward Will Step Down as CEO

Tony Hayward, the boyish corporate face of the BP oil spill disaster, is on his way out as head of the international energy giant and will step down sometime before Oct. 1, a London newspaper reports. The oil company denied it.

Hayward, the BP CEO, has taken the brunt of the criticism for the company's response to the April 20 explosion of an oil rig and the subsequent blowout of a deep-water well that sent tens of millions of gallons of oil surging into the Gulf of Mexico. He took plenty of heat early in the crisis for his flip comment that he too wanted the well plugged so he could get his life back. In June, BP pulled Hayward back from his day-to-day role managing the crisis. He also didn't offer enough substantive answers for U.S lawmakers and took a verbal beating in testimony before a congressional committee.

But a BP spokesman, Daren Beaudo, dismissed word of his departure, reported in the Times of London. Beaudo said, "There is no truth in this article. Tony is not leaving." The Times quoted an unnamed BP "insider" as saying, "You would be hard-pushed to find anyone within the company who does not think he is irreparably damaged -- both buy his own performance and by the event itself."