BP replaces CEO Hayward, then reports record loss

LONDON - BP's embattled Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley on Oct 1, the company said Tuesday, as it reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover the costs of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP said the decision to replace Hayward, 53, with the company's first ever non-British CEO was made by mutual agreement. In a mark of faith in its outgoing leader, BP said it planned to recommend him for a non-executive board position at its Russian joint venture and will pay him 1.045 million pounds, a year's salary, in lieu of notice.

"The BP board is deeply saddened to lose a CEO whose success over some three years in driving the performance of the company was so widely and deservedly admired," BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said in a statement accompanying the quarterly earnings update.