Tony Hayward Said to Be Out as BP's Chief Executive in Wake of Oil Spill Fiasco

Tony Hayward, the embattled chief executive of oil giant BP, is negotiating an exit from his job and is likely to be replaced within the next 24 hours by Robert Dudley, who has been directing the company's response to the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to the New York Times and multiple news sources.

BP has been distancing Hayward from a central role in the company and its handling of the oil spill for weeks, following a succession of embarrassing gaffes and scathing criticism of him from members of Congress, where he testified at several hearings. In June, Hayward stoked the fires more when he flew off to England to watch his yacht compete in a race.

Hayward had run BP since 2007.

When Dudley was put in charge of the cleanup late last month, one analyst told the Times, "He's not only a good ol' boy, but he's from Mississippi and he doesn't have a British accent. The media will take it a lot easier on him. He will fit in the landscape better than Tony Hayward."

Aside from issues of BP's performance, Hayward did little to help the company image. In late May, when asked what he would tell locals whose livelihoods were being threatened by the spill, Hayward (in)famously said, "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."

At the time, he also took issue with a series of separate scientific studies that said huge oil plumes had developed underwater, saying the "oil is on the surface."

Perhaps as damaging was a statement he made to the British newspaper, The Guardian, several weeks after the spill had begun when he said, "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." (Fortune compiled a list of past Hayward quotes you can find here).

Hayward had infuriated U.S. lawmakers in June when he appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-Calif.) accused Hayward of "stonewalling" the committee when he denied that he had any personal responsibility for events leading up to the oil rig disaster. "I'm not stonewalling," he said. "I simply wasn't involved in the decision-making."

The Telegraph of London reported Saturday that Hayward's contract entitles him to "current salary and benefits" upon leaving BP. Hayward made about $1.6 million, although last year he actually earned significantly more than that through an annual bonus, long-term incentive payment and cashing in share options that he held.