The CEO of British oil and gas company BP, Bernard Looney, announced that he resigned after failing to disclose his full relationships with his colleagues.
The situation comes as Looney has spent less than four years as the chief executive of the oil and gas company. He had spent his entire career with BP and departed the firm, worth roughly $110 billion, in a surprising decision.
BP CEO Bernard Looney Resigns
BP on Tuesday night informed its investors that Looney was not able to provide details of all relationships and was accepting that he was obliged to make a complete disclosure. It added that the CEO disclosed only a few historical relationships with colleagues before becoming the company's chief executive officer.
That disclosure occurred during a review that was conducted last year, and it was triggered by information from an anonymous source. No breach of the company's code of conduct was found at the time, as per The Guardian.
However, the company said that its board continued to seek and was given reassurances by Looney regarding disclosure of past personal relationships. This also included his future behavior with the company.
Other allegations and an investigation involving external legal counsel were made recently. BP said that Looney informed the company that he accepted that he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures.
The firm released a statement saying that it has strong values and that its board expects everyone working to behave according to those values. In particular, all leaders are expected to act as role models and to exercise sound judgment so that they can earn other people's trust.
Failure To Disclose Personal Relationships
BP also noted that Chief Financial Officer Murray Auchincloss will act as CEO on an interim basis following Looney's resignation. The latter, who is 53 years old, first became the company's chief executive in February 2020, when he committed to reinventing the 114-year-old company, according to Reuters.
At the time, Looney laid out plans to have the British oil and gas company achieve zero net emissions by 2050 and invest billions into renewable and low-carbon power. The recent investigations into the CEO's relationships followed similar allegations that the company's board looked into in previous probes in May 2022.
Before Looney's resignation announcement was reported, BP shares in London ended up 1%, and the company's New York-listed shares fell 1.5% to the day's low after the news. Auchincloss, set to step into Looney's shoes, became the CFO in July 2020 and has since supported the CEO to steer the firm through some of the most tumultuous years in modern history.
Looney was born in Ireland, and his family raised him on a farm before joining BP in 1991 as an engineer. He subsequently became a member of the firm's executive team in 2010, nearly two decades after joining the company, said BBC.
