2023-09-13 09:01:00
Interactive Investor analyst Richard Hunter notes that “compared to the billion-dollar fines following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the negative oil prices” during the pandemic, […] this resignation is a surprise but not a major chapter in the history of BP”.
In its press release released on Tuesday evening, BP explained that Mr. Looney was resigning after admitting “not having been completely transparent” about “personal relationships” with several colleagues. Financial Director Murray Auchincloss is acting as interim manager while a permanent replacement is searched.
BP wants to give the impression that “everything is business as usual but there will inevitably be uncertainty over the interval required to find a permanent leader” or a possible change in strategy, adds Richard Hunter.
BP makes a profit of 8 billion, compared to a historic loss a year earlier
An internal investigation launched
Sophie Lund-Yates, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, notes for her part that “errors of this magnitude are not what we expect from one of the biggest bosses in the country”. “A clear direction must be proclaimed quickly to limit the negative impact” on the company and its actions, continues the analyst.
Bernard Looney can be credited with leading one of Britain’s largest groups through the pandemic, which caused oil prices and economic activity to collapse, and then the Russian invasion. of Ukraine, which conversely caused oil prices to soar and inflated the accounts of oil companies.
In its press release on Tuesday, BP explains that it became aware in May 2022 of “allegations […] relating to Mr. Looney’s behavior regarding personal relationships with colleagues within the group.
An internal investigation was launched, during which the managing director, aged 53 and who took charge of the group in 2020, admitted “a small number of old relationships with colleagues before becoming managing director”. “No violation of the group’s code of conduct has been noted,” specifies BP. “But new allegations of a similar nature” have emerged “recently” and on Tuesday, “Mr. Looney informed the group that he acknowledged that he had not been completely transparent in his previous statements.
Of Irish origin, Bernard Looney joined BP as an engineer in 1991 and spent his entire career there, occupying various operational and management positions in several countries, including the United States, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.
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