BP’s Revolving CEO Door Is Beyond The Pale

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The British oil major has seen three of its four CEOs depart prematurely over the last two decades: John Browne, Tony Hayward and now Bernard Looney all left early. In the world of Big Oil, where business plans are laid over long periods, that’s an anomaly. And BP is lagging its rivals. 

“Resigned” is corporate-speak. But semantics aren’t the problem. The real issue is governance. BP isn’t any ordinary oil company. It’s one of the largest publicly listed companies in London; a champion of British business at home and abroad; and a corporation of huge geopolitical importance for its home country, which is fighting an energy crisis. To see its C-suite reduced to a revolving door pushing out executive after executive is an utter disappointment.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

• Billionaire Ratcliffe’s Man Utd Cash Fountain Is Sputtering: Chris Bryant

• What Happened to Africa Rising? It’s Been Another Lost Decade: Javier Blas

• Italy and Britain Get Tongue-Tied Over Xi Jinping: Lionel Laurent

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Javier Blas is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy and commodities. A former reporter for Bloomberg News and commodities editor at the Financial Times, he is coauthor of “The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.