Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, has said the oil group needs to reinvent itself in as radical a way as it did in the 1970s and 1990s, according to a summary of his remarks posted on the company's intranet.

Mr Hayward told a meeting of group leaders in the US: "BP has reinvented itself before in the 1970s and early 1990s. It needs to reinvent itself again in 2008."