BP chief executive Tony Hayward will quit on Oct 1 following the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company made this declaration today.

Tony, who has been with BP for the last 28 years, had been severely criticized for his handling of the disaster.

He is likely to be succeeded by Robert Dudley, a US citizen, at the helm of Britain's largest company.

The news came as the company declared a loss of $17.1 billion in its second quarter, mainly because of costs involved in cleaning up the oil spill.

The loss during the April-June period was the first quarterly deficit since 1992 and came on top of $6.1 billion profit for the first quarter of 2010. (With Inputs from Agencies)