BP Refining CEO Resigned

Oil giant BP announced the resignation of a key refining executive yesterday.

Mike Hoffman would leave the company on April 30, 2007, to return to the US, his native country.

The company said he will be replaced by CJ Warner, a regional vice-president for health, safety and the environment.

Hoffman, who joined BP in 1980, was appointed to the refining post in 2002 and was in charge in March 2005, when an explosion at BP's Texas City plant killed 15 workers and injured hundreds more.

The accident has spurred numerous US government investigations and an independent review.

The company is also facing several lawsuits from families of those killed and from injured workers.