This Sunday’s “vanity of vanities” lament from the Book of Ecclesiastes asks, “What profit comes to man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?” BP CEO Tony Hayward expressed a similar lament when his company announced that he would be replaced by American Robert Dudley on October 1.

Responding to the announcement, Hayward said that had been "demonized and vilified" as the "public face" of the massive Gulf oil spill: "Sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus."

BP reported a record quarterly loss as it set aside $32.2 billion to cover costs of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill. And BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told investors: "BP will change as a result of this accident. . . . We are taking a hard look at ourselves, what we do, and how we do it. What we learn will have implications for our ways of working, our strategy, and our governance."

Dudley, currently BP’s managing director, told reporters Tuesday that he recognizes the complexity of what BP has to do to restore its financial strength and its reputation. The oil spill, he said, has been a "wake-up call not only for BP, but the oil and gas industry overall, and we will be looking deeply at our review of operational safety and what we have learned from this spill."

Hayward made some huge PR gaffes with insensitive comments in the aftermath of the disaster that has leaked more than five million barrels of oil into the Gulf and tarred beaches from Texas to Florida. The first sign of trouble was his early suggestion that the environmental impact was likely to be "very, very modest." A later comment that he would like his life back, and his decision to go yacht-racing while the oil was still gushing, were even worse.

In London Tuesday, Greenpeace protestors closed more than 50 service stations in a protest timed to coincide with the company's earnings update. The environmental action group is calling on Dudley to focus the company on greener and renewable sources of energy.

Source: Articles by Sarah Arnott for Independent.co.uk, Jane Wardell for the Associated Press, and Tom Bergin and Kristin Hays for Reuters.