Ships returned to the Gulf of Mexico to resume siphoning oil from the BP Plc spill after the weather improved, but there was a storm brewing Monday at the headquarters of the British energy giant, dpa reported.
Crews were also back at work Sunday attempting to permanently plug the source of the largest oil spill in US history, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said, via a relief well that would eventually stop the leak with injections of mud and cement.
Allen said BP would perform a "static kill" after August 1, by pouring in mud from the top.
Almost all ships and platforms had left the spill area on Friday as storm Bonnie neared, with only two vessels staying behind to monitor the well.
Much of the action was to shift to London, however, where BP's board was expected to meet Monday to vote on the fate of the company's embattled chief executive Tony Hayward.
Hayward is to step down following intense criticism of his handling of the spill, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported Sunday. He had negotiated the conditions for his departure over the weekend.
The 53-year-old was likely to be replaced by his colleague, Robert Dudley, who took the lead in handling BP's efforts to contain the spill from Hayward in mid-June.
Dudley, 54, a US citizen who grew up in Mississippi, is known as a straight-talking executive and has the reputation of a "fixer" at BP, after having led its delicate - and at times turbulent - TNK-BP joint venture with Russia.
Hayward was relieved of the day-to-day handling of the enormous response to the oil spill two months into the disaster, after a series of gaffes.
At a tense Congressional hearing in Washington last month, US lawmakers charged that Hayward paid no attention to increasing reports of safety problems with the deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded April 20.
Hayward's image was further damaged after photographs of him taking a break to attend yacht races incited outrage among residents of the Gulf coast and prompted criticism from the White House.
"Well, to quote Tony Hayward, he's got his life back, as he would say," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said then, echoing earlier remarks by Hayward that he wanted his life back after weeks devoted to the disaster. The comments had been called insensitive to the families of the 11 workers who died in the explosion and to others hurt by the spill.
"And I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting. This has just been part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes," Emanuel said.
A BP spokesman on Sunday would neither confirm nor deny the reports of Hayward's exit, which were based on industry sources.
An announcement will likely be made Tuesday, when the company releases its second-quarter results.