BP CEO Browne Resigns

Lord John Browne, Chief Executive Officer of BP Group addresses the media, in this March 24, 2005 file photo, at City Hall in Texas City, Texas, regarding the explosion at their plant in Texas City that killed fifteen people. BP PLC's chief executive, John Browne, resigned Tuesday, May 1, 2007 only hours after a judge cleared the way for a newspaper to publish details of his private life. Browne had led the huge energy company for more than a decade. He had announced earlier this year that he would resign at the end of July. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, file) (Tony Gutierrez - AP)

"This guy was a superstar in the oil industry," he said.

But Browne's attempts to fashion BP as an environmentally friendly oil company _ he was the first major oil company CEO to acknowledge global warming and masterminded BP's logo change from a shield to a flowerlike sunburst design with the slogan "Beyond Petroleum" _ were undermined by the company's recent U.S. troubles.

BP was forced to temporarily close some of its operations at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska because of a major pipeline spill and delayed the opening of its key Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The 2005 explosion at its Texas refinery that killed 15 workers has so far cost the company around $2 billion in compensation payouts, repairs and lost profits.

Browne told shareholders at the annual meeting last month that the day of the accident was the "saddest and darkest" of his career. Sutherland said the company was making "good progress" on safety issues.

BP is set to appoint an independent safety expert this month.

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AP Business Writer John Wilen contributed to this story from New York.

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