Bernard Looney

Last updated

Bernard Looney
FREng
Bernard Looney.jpg
Born1970 (age 53–54)
County Kerry, Ireland
Education University College Dublin
Stanford Graduate School of Business
OccupationBusinessman
TitleCEO, BP
TermFebruary 2020–September 2023
Predecessor Bob Dudley
Successor Murray Auchincloss
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2017;div. 2019)​
[1]

Bernard Looney FREng (born 1970) is an Irish businessman and former chief executive officer of BP.

Contents

During Looney's tenure as CEO of BP, he promised to end BP's relationship with Rosneft, the Russian state-owned energy giant, amid Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Looney was a member of Rosneft's board until February 2022. [2]

Early life

Looney was born in County Kerry, and was raised on a small dairy farm in Ashgrove, near Kenmare. He was the first in his family to attend a university. [3] [4] Looney earned a degree in electrical engineering from University College Dublin and a master's in management from Stanford Graduate School of Business. [4] Looney is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the Energy Institute. [4]

Career

Looney, who has spent his entire career at BP, worked in core production and drilling roles in the North Sea, Vietnam and Mexico, serving in other executive roles before taking over the upstream division in 2016. [5] [3]

In October 2019, it was announced that Looney would succeed Bob Dudley as group chief executive [4] in February 2020. [6] [7]

He sold BP shares worth £7.8 million in February and April 2019. [8] [9] [10]

Looney was one of five BP employees who attended COP27 as delegates of Mauritania, where BP has made significant investments. The company said Looney and the others attended for a signing ceremony; however, Looney's attendance was criticised by activists who were unhappy at the influence of executives from fossil fuel companies at the conference. [11]

OilyFans picture of Bernard Looney in Tottenham, London, England Bernard Looney Oilyfans.jpg
OilyFans picture of Bernard Looney in Tottenham, London, England

In March 2023, it was announced that Looney had received a 2022 pay package of £10 million, more than double what he received the previous year. The package included a £1.4 million salary, a £2.4 million bonus, and a £6 million share award, as well as benefits. It was criticized by campaign groups which questioned the appropriateness of such an increase while energy bills are a struggle for some families to pay. [12] [13]

In September 2023, Looney resigned abruptly from his position for failing to fully disclose details of his past personal relationships with colleagues. [14]

Response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Looney, by virtue of BP's 20% stake in Moscow-based oil-producer Rosneft, formerly served alongside Igor Sechin, who is the chief executive officer, president and chairman of Rosneft's management board. [15] [16]

On 25 February 2022, Looney engaged in talks with the British Secretary of State for Business, Kwasi Kwarteng. The Government of the United Kingdom reportedly asked Looney to relinquish BP's 20% stake in the Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft, [17] which has strong ties to Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin, [18] [19] in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Personal life

Looney lives in Mayfair, central London, England. [20] He married British life coach Jacqueline Hurst in October 2017. They separated the next year and finalised their divorce in 2019. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gazprom</span> Russian oil and gas company

PJSC Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contraction of the Russian words gazovaya promyshlennost. In January 2022, Gazprom displaced Sberbank from the first place in the list of the largest company in Russia by market capitalization. In 2022, the company's revenue amounted to 8 trillion rubles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yukos</span> 1993–2007 Russian oil and gas company

OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was an oil and gas company based in Moscow, Russia. Yukos was acquired from the Russian government by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Bank Menatep during the controversial "loans for shares" auctions of the mid 1990s. Between 1996 and 2003, Yukos became one of the largest and most successful Russian companies, producing 20% of Russia's oil output. In the 2004 Fortune 500, Yukos was ranked as the 359th largest company in the world. In October 2003, Khodorkovsky—by then the richest person in Russia and 16th richest person in the world—was arrested, and the company was forcibly broken up for alleged unpaid taxes shortly after and declared bankrupt in August 2006. Courts in several countries later ruled that the real intent was to destroy Yukos and obtain its assets for the government, and act politically against Khodorkovsky. In 2014, the largest arbitration award in history, $50 billion (€37.2 billion), was won by Yukos' former owners against Russia. This $50 billion award by the Permanent Court of Arbitration was ruled invalid by the District court in The Hague in 2016, but reinstated by the Court of Appeal of the Hague in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikhail Fridman</span> Russian–Israeli billionaire businessman and oligarch (born 1964)

Mikhail Maratovich Fridman is a Ukrainian-born, Russian–Israeli tycoon. He is one of the co-founders of Alfa-Group, a multinational Russian conglomerate. According to Forbes, he was the second-richest Russian as of 2013, moving down to ninth-richest Russian in 2023. In May 2017, he was also ranked as Russia's most important businessman by bne IntelliNews. In February 2024, Fridman had a net worth of $13.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Vekselberg</span> Russian–Cypriot oligarch and businessman (born 1957)

Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg is a Russian businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate. According to Forbes, as of November 2021, his fortune is estimated at $9.3 billion, making him the 262nd richest person in the world. Born in Ukraine, he has Russian, Israeli and Cypriot citizenship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Future plc</span> British publishing company

Future plc is a British publishing company. It was started in 1985 by Chris Anderson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TUI Group</span> German multinational travel company

TUI AG is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for Touristik Union International. TUI AG was known as Preussag AG until 1997 when the company changed its activities from mining to tourism. It is headquartered in Hanover, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosneft</span> Russian energy company headquartered in Moscow

PJSC Rosneft Oil Company is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum products. The company is controlled by the Russian government through the Rosneftegaz holding company. Its name is a portmanteau of the Russian words Rossiyskaya neft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Khan</span> Russian-Ukrainian businessman

German Borisovich Khan is a Ukrainian-Russian oligarch, billionaire, and businessman. After graduating from university in 1988 he worked in a wholesale business selling consumer items, before setting up his own cooperative. He was then appointed the head of the wholesale trade business Alfa Eco as part of the Alfa Group Consortium, by his college friend Mikhail Fridman. Alfa Group, which he also shares with another fellow billionaire and college peer, Alexei Kuzmichev, is the biggest financial and industrial investment group in Russia. He became president of Alfa Eco in 1996 and was instrumental in directing the company to focus on export and the oil trade. When Alfa bought Tyumen Oil (TNK) in 1997, he joined the board of directors. He was deputy chairman of TNK Oil Company from 1997 until 2003. In 2003, Khan worked with the other TNK owners to form a 50–50 joint venture with BP, in what was the largest foreign investment in Russia to date, at US$8 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinopec</span> Chinese oil and gas enterprise

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The SASAC administers China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation for the benefit of State Council of the People's Republic of China. China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation operates a publicly traded subsidiary, called Sinopec, listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation is the world's largest oil refining conglomerate, state owned enterprise, and second highest revenue company in the world behind Walmart.

ARETI International Group is a private energy company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The ARETI group consists of holding companies registered in Switzerland, Cyprus, the United States, Turkmenistan and is involved in the energy industry, real estate and cycling development. The company operates primarily in Switzerland and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. ARETI was created by Igor Makarov in 2015 following his sale of Itera International Group of Companies, which was started in 1992 and sold off in 2013, when Itera's main subsidiary, Itera Oil & Gas Company, was acquired by Rosneft prior to any sanctions placed on Rosneft.

TNK-BP was a major vertically integrated Russian oil company headquartered in Moscow. It was Russia's third-largest oil producer and among the ten largest private oil companies in the world. In 2013 it was acquired by Russian oil company Rosneft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Len Blavatnik</span> Ukrainian-born British-American billionaire businessperson and philanthropist (born 1957)

Sir Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik is a Soviet/Ukrainian-born British-American businessman and philanthropist. In 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at $32.1 billion, ranking him the 52nd-richest person in the world. In 2017, Blavatnik received a knighthood for services to philanthropy.

Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. By some estimates, it is the world's largest commodity trader, and among the world's largest companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sistema</span> Russian conglomerate company

AFK Sistema PAO is a large Russian conglomerate company, founded by Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who was chairman of the corporation's board of directors until 2022. In April, Yevtushenkov's shareholding in Sistema has decreased to 49.2%, and he also stepped down from Sistema's board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexey Kuzmichev</span> Russian businessman

Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev or Kousmichoff is a Russian businessman. He is one of the founders of the LetterOne Group (LetterOne) and the Alfa Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Igor Sechin</span> Russian oligarch (born 1960)

Igor Ivanovich Sechin is a Russian oligarch and a government official, considered a close ally and "de facto deputy" of Vladimir Putin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BP</span> British multinational oil and gas company

BP p.l.c. is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and one of the world's largest companies measured by revenues and profits. It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Dudley</span> American-born businessman

Robert Warren Dudley is an American businessman who is a former group chief executive of BP. He had been president and chief executive of TNK-BP and on June 18, 2010, was assigned to be BP executive in charge of the Gulf Coast Restoration Organization responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He is the chair of the international industry-led Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). He is a former board member of Rosneft, the Russian state-owned energy giant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Polovets</span> Russian-American businessman and philanthropist (born 1963)

Stan Polovets is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is known for his work in the international energy sector and for his innovative philanthropic initiatives.

CERAWeek is an annual energy conference organized by the information and insights company S&P Global in Houston, Texas. The conference provides a platform for discussion on a range of energy-related topics; CERAWeek 2019 featured sessions on the world economic outlook, geopolitics, energy policy and regulation, climate change and technological innovation, among other topics. The conference features prominent speakers from energy, policy, technology, and financial industries, and is chaired by Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman, IHS Markit and Jamey Rosenfield, vice chair, CERAWeek, senior vice president, IHS Markit. Both are co-founders of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

References

  1. 1 2 Nimmo, Jamie (20 February 2022). "BP's solar evangelist Bernard Looney feels the heat from ex-wife". The Sunday Times.
  2. ↑ "BP exiting stake in Russian oil and gas company Rosneft". San Francisco Chronicle. 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  3. 1 2 "How this Kerry farmer's son is a rising star at oil giant BP". independent.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Taylor, Charlie (4 October 2019). "Irishman Bernard Looney named as chief executive of BP". Irish Times. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  5. ↑ Millard, Rachel (1 February 2020). "Can a new leader really help oil giant BP navigate the climate crisis?". The Telegraph– via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  6. ↑ Meredith, Sam (4 October 2019). "BP CEO Bob Dudley to step down, Bernard Looney will succeed". CNBC. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  7. ↑ "BP chief executive Bob Dudley to retire, to be succeeded by Bernard Looney | News and insights | Home". BP global. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  8. ↑ "PRESS: New BP Chief Bernard Looney Sells Nearly GBP8 Million In Share". MorningstarUK. 9 December 2019. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "Director/PDMR Shareholding". otp.investis.com.
  10. ↑ "Director/PDMR Shareholding". otp.investis.com.
  11. ↑ McGrath, Matt (10 November 2022). "COP27: BP chief listed as delegate for Mauritania". BBC News. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  12. ↑ Lawson, Alex. "Doubling of BP boss pay to £10m is a 'kick in the teeth', say campaigners". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  13. ↑ "BP chief's annual pay more than doubles to £10m". BBC News. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  14. ↑ Lawson, Alex (12 September 2023). "BP boss Bernard Looney resigns after failing to reveal relationships with colleagues". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ "BP's ties to Russia draw UK government 'concern'". the Guardian. 25 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  16. ↑ Gosden, Emily. "BP quizzed by minister over links to Russia". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  17. ↑ "Ukraine conflict: BP under pressure to sell stake in Russian firm". BBC News. 25 February 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  18. ↑ Mark Thompson. "How Exxon, BP and Shell help Russia pump oil and gas". CNN. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  19. ↑ Foy, Henry (1 March 2018). "'We need to talk about Igor': the rise of Russia's most powerful oligarch". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  20. ↑ "How this Kerry farmer's son is a rising star at oil giant BP". Irish Independent. 28 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
Business positions
Preceded by Group Chief Executive of BP
2020–2023		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.