This Sunday, the British oil company BP announced that it intends to sell its 19.75% stake in the Russian state oil company Rosneft and BP CEO Bernard Looney will leave his post on the board of this company “immediately”. The other director of BP, Bob Dudley, will also resign from Rosneft’s board of directors. “Like so many others, I am deeply saddened and saddened by the situation in Ukraine and my heart is with all those affected,” Looney said in a statement, announcing that they had “rethought” their participation in Rosneft. “I am convinced that the decisions we have made as a board of directors are not only the right ones, but they are the best in the medium term for BP,” he said. For Looney, the main priority is to “take care of all the people in the region and we will do it by supporting them to the fullest. “We are studying how BP could support humanitarian aid,” he said.
BP chief executive Helge Lund has denounced the “aggression” of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and warned of its “tragic consequences”. “BP has been operating in Russia for more than 30 years, working with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action is a fundamental change, “he said. “It has led BP’s board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our stake in Rosneft, a state-owned company, simply cannot continue,” he said.
In addition, the Norwegian state investment fund has begun the process of withdrawing the $ 1.3 trillion of assets it holds in nearly 50 Russian companies in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store reported. “We have decided to freeze the fund’s investments and have begun the sale process.” said the Norwegian Prime Minister at a press conference held by Bloomberg. The Norwegian investment fund, considered the largest in the world, had 3.3 billion in shares and bonds of the Russian treasury at the end of 2020.