BP said Sunday it is exiting its share in Rosneft, a state-owned Russian oil and gas company.
BP has held a 19.75 per cent stake in Rosneft since 2013. The British company also said its CEO, Bernard Looney, and former BP executive Bob Dudley will immediately resign from Rosnefts board.
Looney had been a director of Rosneft as one of two BP-nominated directors since 2020. Dudley had been a director since 2013, the company said. BP has worked in Russia for more than 30 years, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced the company to reevaluate its holding.
“This military action represents a fundamental change,” BP chair Helge Lund said in a statement. “It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue.”
Like so many, I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the situation unfolding in Ukraine and my heart goes out to everyone affected. It has caused us to fundamentally rethink BPs position with Rosneft, Looney said in a statement.
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