“The industry needs to re-evaluated safety” Hayward told in investment professionals in a webcast. Everyone will need to re-evaluate the business model to reduce risk associated with deepwater drilling” Hayward added.

BP has always maintained that it does not deserve all the blame for the April accident and its subsequent pollution and intends to pursue legal action against its trading partners for a sharer of the cleanup and containment costs. Those partners include rig operator Transocean, the blowout preventer builder Cameron and Halliburton.

“It is clear the accident was the result of multiple equipment errors and human error involving many companies,” Hayward said in the webcast.

“From the beginning of the crisis, I’ve sought to do the right thing, do it the right way and communicate openly,” said Hayward.

Eleven workers died when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April. From that day until July 15 when a cap was sealed over the wellhead oil flowed into the Gulf at the rate of tens of thousands of barrels a day.

Mr. Hayward has been under pressure over the Gulf of Mexico oil leak and it is expected that his pension entitlement will be hugely controversial given the pollution and affect on people whose lives have been affected by the oil spill.

It is understood that BP pension scheme rules allow the pension to be taken at any point after the age of 50. Mr. Haywood’s pension is valued at about £11 million and he also had six years under a long term performance scheme which might eventually be worth seven several millions more. Mr.

Mr. Hayward was leaving by a mutual agreement and will be replaced by American colleague Bob Dudley who is presently in charge of the Gulf of Mexico cleanup operation for the company.

BP is set to reveal its latest results on Tuesday. The accounts will cover the  compensation and clean up costs of up to $30 billions  and may result in the worst quarterly loss for a UK company. It has lost 40% of its market capitalization since the May accident and spill.

Mr. Hayward has been heavily criticized by residents of the Gulf Coast and also by US politicians for his handling of the cleanup operation. He has also made a series of gaffes including saying that he just “wanted his life back”. He was also taken to task for attending a sailing event in the UK in June whilst the pollution was increasing day by day. Mr. Haywood was rebuked by members of the house energy and commerce committee at stonewalling questions at a congressional hearing.