LONDON — BP's embattled Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward will be replaced by American Robert Dudley on Oct. 1, the company said Tuesday, as it reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover the costs of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP said the decision to replace Hayward, 53, with the company's first non-British CEO was made by mutual agreement. In a mark of faith in its outgoing leader, BP said it planned to recommend him for a non-executive board position at its Russian joint venture and will pay him $1.6 million, a year's salary, in lieu of notice.

Besides permanently plugging the oil leak and cleaning up the spill and the company's image, Dudley will oversee the sale of $30 billion in assets over the next 18 months to bolster the company's finances.

Hayward, who has a doctorate in geology, had been a well-regarded chief executive. But his promise when he took the job in 2007 to focus "like a laser" on safety came back to haunt him after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed a deep-sea gusher of oil.