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BP appoints upstream boss as new CEO

Bob Dudley is to retire in February after seeing BP through Deepwater Horizon recovery and beyond
October 4, 2019

BP (BP.) chief executive Bob Dudley is retiring, the company has announced. He will be replaced by upstream boss Bernard Looney in February. Reviewing his tenure, shareholders can tick off consistent dividend growth, a stable share price and a recovery from the dark times after the deadly Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010. Mr Dudley’s replacement will now have the task of aligning BP more closely with the Paris climate goals, as the company has promised, while maintaining growth. He comes from the company’s largest and highest-earning division, which contributed two-thirds of BP’s underlying replacement cost profit last year while also seeing 148 per cent year-on-year growth from 2017. 

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BP chairman Helge Lund, in his job for less than a year, said Mr Looney was up to managing the company in a changing investment climate. “[He has a] clear sense of what BP must do to thrive through the energy transition,” Mr Lund said. 

Panmure Gordon analyst Colin Smith said Mr Looney was an “obvious successor” to Mr Dudley. 

The move comes as the group has already launched a strategy shift unrelated to climate change, with the sale of its decades-old Alaska assets announced in August. The $5.6bn (£4.5bn) sale includes its operating stake in the Prudhoe Bay field, with net production of 74,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) expected in 2019. It came as part of a planned $10bn clear-out to pay for the $10.5bn purchase of BHP’s (BHP) onshore US portfolio.