Tony Hayward’s hopes of drawing a line under the worst two years of BP’s history suffered a fresh setback yesterday after a Texas judge postponed a hearing to decide whether to accept the oil company’s plea agreement and $370 million (£180 million) fine.

BP has offered to admit to criminal activity concerning propane price-fixing, its Alaskan oil pipeline leak and the way it operated its Texas City refinery, which blew up in March 2002, killing 15 workers and injuring 170. It has offered to pay fines totalling $370 million on the condition that no further charges are brought concerning the outstanding investigations.

Mr Hayward, who took over as chief executive in the summer, had wanted to bring to an end the inquiries into the company in the US and settle the 1,000 outstanding lawsuits from victims of the refinery blast. BP is trying to move on in order to halt a slide in profit margins and concentrate on cost-cutting.

Yesterday, District Judge Lee Rosenthal, appointed to consider whether to accept BP’s proposed plea agreement, postponed the hearing, which had been scheduled for this week, until February. She is also preparing to listen to more personal testimonies from victims of the Texas refinery blast and their families in order to decide whether the $50 million fine imposed against BP is sufficient. She can reject the plea agreement, which would force the Department of Justice and BP to renegotiate its terms.

She could also force the case to go to a full US trial in front of a jury. It is thought that the Department of Justice is keen that the cases are settled without going to a costly trial.

Yesterday, dozens more victims of the blast said that they opposed the plea agreement and urged the judge to insist on new measures, including a far bigger fine, and for BP’s UK holding company and individual executives to accept culpability for the explosion.

Their lawyer, Brent Coon, said the fine was “grossly inadequate” and the parent company, BP, was not a party to the plea agreement. “We have established conclusively that the recurrent and absurdly unnecessary budget cuts at Texas City that led to the explosion were made under direct and specific orders from BP’s London headquarters,” he said.

Mr Coon added: “Management at all levels was repeatedly warned that a tragedy of this nature was inevitable. It is unconscionable that at least some of those responsible do not got to prison.”

A BP spokesman in the US failed to return calls.

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