Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, is planning to travel to Russia to reassure Dmitry Medvedev, its president, that the UK oil group is not on the brink of collapse after its spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr Hayward's decision to leave the US comes as BP is expected to announce today that the cost of trying to stop and contain the spill and cleaning up the mess it has left on beaches from Louisiana to Florida has risen to $2bn so far.

Mr Hayward at the weekend was in the UK, where BP's board met yesterday to discuss ways of boosting the group's warchest to cover both the claims resulting from the spill and the restoration of investor confidence. Options under discussion include a $10bn bond offering and a further $10bn of asset sales. These come on top of the $10bn sales mooted last week, a long with the suspension of the dividend for three quarters and reduction of the capital expenditure programme.