TNK-BP

Several media have reported that BP will increase its target for asset sales to as high as $40 billion. This almost certainly mean disposing of its aging oil field holdings in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, which may be worth as much as $20 billion.

BP's board appears to be saying yes. They're betting the American who has become the face of BP's Gulf Oil spill cleanup has the right stuff to not only end that nightmare but to lead an overhaul of BP's corporate culture to one that stresses safety as well profits.

Embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward, whose penchant for verbal gaffes deepened the psychological wounds caused by the worst oil spill in U.S. history, will step down from the top job effective Oct. 1 to take over as head of BP's joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP.

BP CEO Tony Hayward is traveling to Moscow to meet with Igor Sechin, a top deputy to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The meeting comes as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is calling for a levy on oil companies to finance a fund to pay for cleaning up the industry's environmental disasters.