救英国石油（BP PLC）及其美国分支的重任将要落到一位美国人身上。
董 事总经理达德利（Robert Dudley）可能被任命为新的首席执行长，标志着与英国历史和英国制度紧密相联的英国石油的转折点。英国石油原名为British Petroleum，在投资者对英国石油在墨西哥湾的清污成本拖累了这家公司的市值之前，英国石油是英国最大的公司。
现年54岁的达德利将是出任英国石油首席执行长的第一位美国人。达德利来自美国历史悠久的石油公司Amoco Corp.，该公司于1998年被英国石油收购，由此达德利加入了英国石油。
英国石油一位发言人没有对达德利即将担任首席执行长的传言发表评论，只是说唐熙华在董事会和管理层的支持下将继续为公司掌舵。
达 德利的升任凸显了美国对英国石油的重要性。美国市场在公司业务中占40%，而且是许多潜在增长点的所在。但2005年公司在得州得克萨斯市的大型炼油设施 发生爆炸，之后在阿拉斯加油田发生事故，以及最终发生了美国历史上最严重的近海漏油事件，这一连串灾难都使美国成为英国石油的政治雷区。
休 斯敦莱斯大学（Rice University）贝克研究所能源论坛（Baker Institute Energy Forum）主任贾菲（Amy Myers Jaffe）说，美国非常重要，但她也说，达德利作为英国石油与俄罗斯合资企业TNK-BP的前首席执行长，他有处理政治问题的经验。
休 斯敦能源投资银行Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.研究主管皮克林（Dan Pickering）表示，更广泛地来说，由一位美国人担任首席执行长，或许可以使英国石油在处理与和解及罚款等有关的谈判这类漏油后事务中更容易一些， 并帮助英国石油维持在阿拉斯加和墨西哥湾深水等知名区域运营的能力。
达德利1955年出生于纽约市皇后区，他的父亲在这里的海军服役，但 很快迁移到密西西比州，他在比洛克西（Biloxi）的海边度过了很多个夏天。他在伊利诺伊大学（University of Illinois）获得了化学工程学位，并在达拉斯南卫理公会大学（Southern Methodist University）和亚利桑那州格兰岱尔市雷鸟商学院（Thunderbird School of Global Management）获得商业学位。
在石油业工作了几十年后，达德利于2009年进入英国石油董事会，公司出版物显示，他在这里主要负责政策，唐熙华将他称作英国石油的外交部长。
分析师说，六个月前，他没有被当成唐熙华的可能继任者，但对公司业务进行审查后，发现很难挑选出一位负责过石油生产或炼油的主管。
Oppenheimer & Co.分析师盖特（Fadel Gheit）说，达德利是唯一一位在过去五年中间，没有因英国石油遭遇的问题而受到影响的高层管理人士。
The task of saving London-based BP PLC -- and its U.S. empire -- is falling to an American.
The likely choice of managing director Robert Dudley as BP's new chief executive marks a watershed moment for a company tightly linked to British history and institutions. Formerly known as British Petroleum, it was the largest company in the U.K. until its market capitalization was dragged down by investors' fears about the costs of cleaning up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Dudley, 54 years old, would be the first American to sit at the top seat at No. 1 St. James Square, the company's tony London address. He joined the company from Amoco Corp., itself a storied U.S. oil company that was absorbed by the British oil giant in 1998.
A BP spokesman had no comment on talk of Mr. Dudley's becoming CEO, except to say that Mr. Hayward remained at the helm with the backing of BP's board and management.
Mr. Dudley's ascension underscores the importance of the U.S. to BP. The U.S. represents 40% of the company's business and much of its growth potential. But the U.S. has become a political minefield after a series of disasters that began with a 2005 explosion at the company's massive refinery in Texas City, Texas, continued with accidents in the oilfields of Alaska, and culminated with the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
'There is a lot at stake in the U.S.,' said Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Baker Institute Energy Forum at Rice University in Houston. But, she noted, Mr. Dudley has experience in dealing with political challenges as former chief executive of BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP.
More broadly, having an American as CEO may help make it 'somewhat easier' to deal with post-oil-spill issues such as negotiating settlements and fines, as well as 'helping BP retain its ability to continue as an operator in high-profile areas such as Alaska and the deep-water Gulf of Mexico,' said Dan Pickering, head of research at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., a Houston-based energy investment bank.
Mr. Dudley was born in 1955 in Queens, N.Y., where his father was serving in the Navy, but soon moved to Mississippi, spending summers in Biloxi, on the coast. He got a chemical-engineering degree from the University of Illinois and business degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz.
When he joined BP's board in 2009 after decades of working in the oil industry he had a policy job, which, according to company publications, Mr. Hayward described as the equivalent of BP's Foreign Secretary.
Six months ago, he wasn't seen as a likely successor to Mr. Hayward. But the scrutiny of the company's operations made it difficult to pick an executive in charge of either oil production or refining, analysts said.
'Bob Dudley is the only senior executive who is totally untainted by any of the problems that have hit BP for the past five years,' says Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co.