(Reuters) – BP’s CEO Bernard Looney is to resign, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
Looney, 53, took office in February 2020 with a vow to reinvent the 114-year-old company, laying out ambitious plans for the British energy giant to achieve zero net emissions by 2050, and to invest billions in renewable and low-carbon power.
A spokesperson for BP declined to comment on the FT report.
Looney has navigated the group through some of the most tumultuous years in modern history, from COVID-19 to a rapid exit from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine last year, an energy price shock, and a global cost of living crisis.
Earlier this year, BP scaled down plans to cut hydrocarbon production by 2030, to 25% from 2019 levels from 40% previously – still the most radical reduction of oil and gas output this decade among major oil companies.
Over the last three years, BP’s shares have underperformed those of European rival Shell as well as U.S. peers Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
Looney replaced Bob Dudley, who had steered BP through the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010.
BP shares ended up 1% before the report which was published after trading hours in London.
(Reporting by Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru and Shadia Nasralla in London; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Marguerita Choy)
