It’s safe to say that October 2007 won’t be a month that BP looks back on with any particular fondness. But despite the huge $60m fine slapped on the company for “violations of federal environmental regulations” in Alaska and Texas, there does appear to be a rather ironic silver lining to the increasingly gloomy skies circling over the company’s headquarters on both sides of the Atlantic.

BP, the world’s second-largest company, has just seen off competition from the likes of Vodafone and Barclays, to be recognised as the most “accountable” big company in the world. And whilst the result will have the nay-sayers shaking their heads in disbelief, the Fortune, AccountAbility and CSR Network rankings gives BP a resounding thumbs up for their approach to corporate responsibility.

According to the study the company’s approach to increasing oil production for the good of consumers’ pockets wins them high marks, as does BP’s commitment for research into the development of wind, solar, and carbon-dioxide sequestration technologies. They also earned extra ranking points for the ruthless way executives involved in the recent scandals were dealt with.

Barclays came in second, thanks in no small part to their stated commitment to responsible lending and their membership of the Equator Principles group – a coalition of banks that discourages lending to projects that could potentially damage or displace communities and ecosystems.

Unsurprisingly for anyone who listened to Detlef Schultz’s passionate appraisal of his company’s corporate responsibility practices at the ELP awards back in May, Vodafone, who last year topped the poll, also found themselves in the top five.

To view the list in full click here. What do you make of the top ten? Tell us your views.