OIL giant BP announced huge losses of more than �11BILLION today as it revealed former boss Tony Hayward is to be banished to SIBERIA.

BP made the announcement as it plunged into the red for the first time in 18 YEARS after racking up a huge clean-up bill of more than �20BILLION � the cost of TWO Olympic games � for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Under-fire Mr Hayward will be handed a part-time role at the firm's joint venture in Russia, whose oil and gas fields are nearly all on the vast, bleak Siberian plains.

But the frozen out chief exec will NOT be based in Russia - and will just jet in for board meetings.

Russian off ... Hayward leaving HQ

He will also have a huge pay-off to keep him warm, which BP is set to confirm today is worth up to �15MILLION.

Today Mr Hayward said: "I became the public face of BP, as a consequence of that I was demonised and vilified.

"BP cannot move on in the US with me as its leader.

"Its a practical matter, not a matter of whether life is fair or not. Life isn't fair, but we all know that."

The firm has also announced a shake-up of its portfolio including up to �19.3billion in asset sales over the next 18 months.

Meanwhile in London this morning Greenpeace protesters claimed they shut down around 50 service stations in a bid to urge the oil company to adopt greener energy policies.

Greenpeace boss John Sauven said: "Under Tony Hayward the company went backwards, squeezing the last drops of oil from places like the Gulf of Mexico, the tar sands of Canada and even the fragile Arctic wilderness."

Brit Mr Hayward is carrying the can for the devastating Deepwater Horizon tragedy which has badly damaged BP's reputation in the States.

He is being replaced by American BP's director Bob Dudley, who will be the firm's first non-British boss.

Mr Hayward will stand down on October 1. He is then set to take up his new job at BP's joint-venture TNK-BP - which ironically was once headed by Mr Dudley. Its fields are mainly in Siberia and the Urals.

Mr Hayward refused to comment yesterday as he was whisked from BP's London HQ in a car with darkened windows.

Meanwhile his pay-out, which could include a �583,000-a-year pension the moment he steps down, has caused outrage in the US.

Lawyer Brent Coon, who is acting for workers hit by the Gulf disaster, said: "I think you would find that everybody over here thinks he should cough up every dime he has."

steve.hawkes@the-sun.co.uk