An outage is inevitable, said Helge Lund, president of BP. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an act of aggression with tragic consequences throughout the region. However, this military action represented a fundamental change. This led the Board of Directors to decide after an exhaustive process that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned company, simply could not continue. We can no longer accept that BP representatives play a role on the Rosneft board of directors.”
The company has held a 19.75% stake in Rosneft since 2013, making it the company’s largest shareholder after the Russian state, according to data from Bloomberg News. In the background is Rosneft’s only known shareholder of Dutch origin: the Hungarian subsidiary of Aegon.
Bernard Looney, BP’s chief executive, is stepping down from the group’s board of directors with immediate effect. Another Rosneft director nominated by BP, former BP Group chief executive Bob Dudley, is also stepping down. On Sunday evening, the Norwegian State Oil Fund also announced that it would sell its holdings in Russia, worth $3.3 billion.
