Banks safe from BP

Wall Street’s exposure to BP’s mounting troubles is not as bad as some had feared, according to an internal investigation by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

After poring over documents for the past two weeks, Fed officials “gave banks’ exposure to BP a passing grade,” said a source quoted by Reuters.

The Fed was comfortable that banks won’t have to alter their credit relations and exposures with BP, the report said.

Meanwhile, Mother Nature and Mother Russia are closing in to seal the fate of bungling BP Tony Hayward — possibly sooner than he thought.

Surging waves churned by high winds of fast-moving tropical storm Alex threatened to disrupt oil-spill recovery operations in BP’s runaway Gulf of Mexico well.

The 60-mile-an-hour storm, which could be classified as a hurricane sometime today, might damage the armada of more than 4,500 vessels struggling in the cleanup and drilling of two relief wells. Hayward has promised to end the crisis by August.

Separately, a senior Russian Cabinet official said Hayward was expected to resign as chief executive — a claim that BP immediately denied.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said he expected Hayward to resign soon and demanded that Moscow be told the name of his successor.

BP’s largest single source of oil and natural gas liquids among far-fling global operations is Russia, with 34 percent of production, giving Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin lots of clout over BP. Some speculate that Putin could be making a play for more control of his nation’s vast resources.

A report by energy analyst Philip Weiss of Argus said BP’s “broad presence reduces the impact of each individual risk,” but cautioned that “BP operations are in some countries with a history of official corruption,” without citing any specific government.

In London, BP said Hayward still remained in his job and no change was being discussed.