Was beleaguered energy giant BP taking a long-term approach to recruitment when it appointed Bob Dudley as chief executive to replace Tony Hayward?

A senior leader at executive search firm CTPartners thinks not. Keith Meyer, newly named the firm’s vice chairman and head of its CEO and board practice, knows something about crises like the one that has engulfed BP from his own years as a former Exxon executive during the ExxonValdez oil spill in 1989. And he expects Dudley to be a short-term CEO for BP.

He finds Dudley’s appointment interesting more because of his ties to Amoco (pre-merger with BP) than the fact that he is an American who might help rebuild relationships in the Gulf.

Meyer says the choice of Dudley could signal BP’s return to a culture and asset strategy more resembling Amoco’s than BP’s, especially since BP did not appoint a CEO from the any of the natural successors, a group of BP insiders that includes Andy Inglis, Ian Conn and Byron Grote.

Meyer suggests likely arguments for a short-term role for Dudley:

• Dudley has never run any significant piece of the company’s operating entities, except the Russian joint venture and is convenient now but not suitable long term.

• BP may want Dudley to phase in the return to Amoco’s culture of leadership in safety, environmental standards and strong operating practices — and prepare one of the younger insiders to take over in time.

• BP needs time to figure out what the company will look like post-$30bn in divestitures before it can shape long-term strategy and name its ultimate choice for CEO.

Whether Dudley stays as CEO or is an interim leader, Meyer says he has three top priorities:

1. Restore market confidence in the company.

2. Work with regulators to protect BP’s long-term strategy for developing deepwater Gulf of Mexico leases.

3. Reset culture, potentially starting symbolically with a brand change back to Amoco in the US.