LONDON (AFP) – Shares in British energy major BP dropped yesterday after chief executive Bernard Looney resigned unexpectedly over his failure to disclose past relationships with colleagues.
BP’s stock fell nearly one per cent at midday on London’s falling FTSE 100 index, despite rising oil prices that normally boost energy firms.
The company announced late on Tuesday that Looney, 53, resigned “with immediate effect” after admitting he had not been “fully transparent” about historical relationships with colleagues.
The Irishman is leaving after less than four years in the role, having steered the energy major through a tumultuous period that included huge swings in prices owing to the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
“The higher oil price might limit some of the fallout from the shock resignation… but this is a highly unwelcome turn of events for investors given his long tenure at the company and his pivotal role at the helm as it navigates the tricky transition to greener energy,” said head of money and markets Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Change at the top is always unsettling and the abrupt nature of his departure will intensify reactions, particularly as it comes at such a sensitive time in the company’s strategy,” she said.
Looney took the top job in February 2020, shortly before the 10th anniversary of the explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that triggered the worst oil spill in US history.
The disaster killed 11 employees and cost the British firm tens of billions of dollars in damages and compensation.
Looney’s arrival came also shortly before oil prices briefly turned negative as Covid lockdowns slashed energy demand and slammed the sector.
Finance chief Murray Auchincloss will now act as interim CEO while the group seeks a permanent successor.