Following a meeting in London to determine his fate, Tony Hayward was expected to resign Monday. He’ll work for BP in Russia instead, managing his company’s role in TNK-BP, a joint venture considered one of BP’s best projects . Hayward may appear to be escaping culpability for leading a wreck less business that caused the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico 2010, and then botching the oil spill response. But before he flies to Moscow, some U.S. senators would like to ask him some personal questions about a BP-Libya oil deal they think influenced the release of a convicted terrorist.

How ironic: Tony Hayward’s Russian sojourn

BP boots Tony Hayward from the corner office in October. The New York Daily News ran an Associated Press report that said Hayward will most likely be swapped out as BP’s CEO by Robert Dudley. Dudley is the man who changed Hayward as BP’s director of the oil spill response. Hayward will now hold up BP’s end on the board on the Russian joint venture TNK-BP. In an ironic twist, Dudley led TNK-BP until he got on someone’s bad side and had to leave Russia in 2008.

Dudley’s TNK-BP tenure did not end well

If Tony Hayward’s new post leading BP’s partnership with Russian oil barons is indicative, his company still regards him highly, perhaps if most Americans and United States politicians don’t. Accounting for 25 percent of its total production, the Washington Post reports that the TNK-BP venture is one of BP’s crown jewels. But Robert Dudley’s experience proves the post can be a headache. After getting into a dispute with Russian shareholders, Dudley was forced to leave the country.

Did Hayward negotiate to release a terrorist in exchange for oil?

Tony Hayward may be changing addresses, but senators Bob Menendez and Kirsten Gillibrand won’t give up calling him before Congress. The senators will hold a hearing July 29 on the release of the Lockerbie bomber and the New York Observer reports that they want to ask Hayward a couple of questions. The British government has been pressured for weeks by the two senators to start investigating whether a BP-Libya oil deal is related to the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset al-Megrahi. Menendez said he believed Hayward was in the middle of negotiations with the Libyans during the oil deal.

Further reading

nydailynews.com/

nytimes.com

observer.com