BP CEO Hayward still in control of Gulf oil spill response

BP is clarifying comments Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg made Friday in a broadcast interview, that BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward will relinquish control over the company’s daily operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP spokesman Andrew Gowers tells CNN that Svanberg was just reflecting a June 4 announcement about BP Managing Director Bob Dudley taking over the long-term disaster response. He said Hayward’s current role has not changed.

BP spokesman Robert Wine tells CNN that Dudley’s duties involve political and community relationships. Dudley is from Mississippi, a state whose coast has been greatly affected by the oil spewing through the Gulf since the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off shore almost two months ago.