BP under pressure to have complete clear-out at top

Pressure was rising on BP to have a complete sweep-out of its top management today, with the City keen to see chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg follow Tony Hayward out of the door.

Attacked by many for failing to support his chief executive while the Gulf of Mexico crisis swirled, Svanberg has been seen as a weak chairman of a company that is vital to Britain's energy and financial interests.

With the board gathering this evening at BP's headquarters in St James Square in London to finalise the departure of Hayward, analysts were already lining up successors to Svanberg.

David Buik at BGC Partners said: "The market definitely wants him to be replaced as chairman, preferably by a deeply respected candidate that ticks the diplomatic and political boxes rather than the commercial ones."

Names in the frame (odds are given below) include Paul Skinner, many people's favourite to get the job last time it became available, and Lord Robertson, the former Nato secretary general.

BP shares added 10.25p to 408.9p this morning as investors bet that the worst of the Gulf crisis is over.

Officially, the company was today insisting "no final decision has been made" on the future of Hayward.

In reality, an announcement is expected to be made to the stock market tomorrow.

The directors were today discussing Hayward's pay-off as well as putting a figure on the cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil-spill disaster, which could be as much as £19 billion.

Hayward is expected to be replaced by BP's US boss Bob Dudley. The biggest crisis in BP's long history threatens to tip the oil giant into the red for the first time since 1992 tomorrow.

Provisions for the impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster could wipe out the
$5 billion (£3.3 billion) in underlying profits expected for the second quarter, a 60% rise on a year earlier.