Even though it’s keeping him from getting back to his life, BP CEO Tony Hayward says that he has no intention of leaving his post just because his company has dumped a little bit of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Chatting it up on BBC TV’s Andrew Marr Show, Hayward said he had the “absolute intention of seeing this through to the end.”

Hayward also reiterated BP’s commitment to taking this spill seriously:

We are going to stop the leak. We’re going to clean up the oil, we’re going to remediate any environmental damage and we are going to return the Gulf coast to the position it was in prior to this event… That’s an absolute commitment, we will be there long after the media has gone, making good on our promises.

Of course, this is the same guy who only a few weeks ago said the “environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest.”

Continuing on in his overconfident way, Hayward was confident that BP would survive this disaster:

BP is a very strong company, it’s operations today are running extremely well. It’s generating a lot of cash flow, it has a very strong balance sheet. Our reputation has been based on thousands of people, over a long period of time, in BP doing the right thing, and were are doing everything we can to do the right thing.

Do you think Hayward needs to step down? Or maybe just shut his mouth for a while?

BP chief says he won’t quit over Gulf spill [USA Today]

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