BP appoints new chair to oversee shift back to fossil fuels | BP

BP has appointed a successor to his sitting chair, Helge Lund, while the energy company stands out from its Net Zero strategy and returns to fossil fuels.

Albert Manifold, the former boss of the CRH building material company, will join the BP’s board of directors on September 1 as non -executive director and elected president, before taking over on October 1.

BP announced in April that Lund, president since 2019 and an important figure in the abandoned green thrust of the company, would leave its position “most likely in 2026”. Lund also underwent a rebellion of investors at the annual BP meeting in the middle of the pressure on his poorly executed stock market.

The change of chair comes in the midst of a broader strategic change to BP, as it reduces green spending and returns its objective to oil and gas, after a sloppy attempt to reinvent itself as a net zero Energy company.

Manifold was general manager of the CRH for a decade until the end of last year, and led the change in the main list of the London Society in New York in 2023.

CEO of BP, Murray Auchincloss, said that last year that the change of BP list in the United States was “not on the agenda”. BP actions have been late on its American peers, while a series of British companies have changed their main London lists in New York.

Amanda Blanc, boss of Aviva and main independent director at BP who directed the process to find a new chair, said that Manifold had “transformed and refocused the CRH into a world leader” and rented “its impressive assessment of the value of shareholders”.

Manifold, who received a package of $ 13 million (9.6 million pounds sterling) for his CRH work last year, called him “an honor to be appointed president of one of the major energy companies in the world and to have the opportunity to help the company reach its full potential”.

BP’s green strategy was established by its previous boss, Bernard Looney, which was appointed by Lund in 2020 to transform the company into an integrated energy company. However, the transition was undermined by an increase in world oil and gas prices, as well as the departure of Looney shock in 2023.

Auchincloss has explained a fundamental “reset” this year after the Elliott Management’s designing fund has raised a participation of several billion pounds in the company in the midst of an increasing dissatisfaction of investors in its slow stock market.

Lund said in April that “having fundamentally reset our strategy” was “the right team to start the process to find my successor”.

The Norwegian, who was paid £ 882,000 last year, was at the center of a high -level storm on a package of 25 million pounds sterling to attract him to group BG in 2015.

BP quickly reduced its green wallet. Last week, he agreed to sell his wind turbine activity in the United States, as part of an unloading plan of $ 20 billion in assets to “simplify and concentrate the company”.

The group of activists from the Green shareholder follows it said that it was a “good signal” that the collector was not a veteran of fossil fuels, but expressed his doubt that “he has the transition experience that BP needs urgently”.

Mark Van Baal, from the Netherlands based group, said: “The new chair must be competent in the climate and in transition and resistant to short-term activists.

“BP’s recent strategic return seems to be motivated by panic after a short -term activist would have bought actions from the company. We mean significant frustration on the part of long -term investors on this subject. ”

Manifold’s appointment is the last in a series of the BP conference room. The company added Simon Henry, a former manager of Shell, to its board of directors two weeks ago, as well as Dave Hager in May. Hager is a veteran of the industry, leading the producer of American shale Devon Energy as managing director, then as an executive president.

BP shares have dropped by more than 10% in the past 12 months, which has prompted speculation that it could become a takeover objective. Last month, his rival Shell was forced to deny that he intended to make an offer for BP, which excluded a formal approach for the next six months.