BP green energy chief to exit as it retreats from low-carbon investments

Oil company says Giulia Chierchia will not be replaced after pressure from investors including Elliott

The architect of BP’s failed green energy agenda will leave the embattled oil company within months as it continues its retreat from low-carbon investments amid a sharp fall in profits. The oil company said Giulia Chierchia, the executive in charge of BP’s sustainability strategy, would step back from her role from 1 June 2025 to “pursue other opportunities” outside the company. She will not be replaced. BP announced her departure weeks after its chair, Helge Lund, said he would step down from the company by next year, and later faced a shareholder rebellion at its AGM over his role in overseeing BP’s failed green agenda. Chierchia and Lund had faced questions over their future in the months since BP abandoned its green strategy in favour of a renewed focus on oil and gas to increase its profits and bolster its flagging market value. The company’s profits dropped by almost 50% in the first three months of this year to $1.4bn (£1.0bn), from $2.7bn in the same period last year. It reported the worse than expected start to the year after its annual profits fell by a third in 2024 to $8.9bn. BP’s shares fell more than 4% on Tuesday. BP’s financial struggles has made the company a target for New York hedge fund Elliott Management, which is notorious for amassing stakes in struggling companies in order to agitate for changes that could increase market value, leading to a profit for the fund. The activist hedge fund has built a 5% stake in BP and has reportedly called on the oil company to U-turn on its green agenda and tighten its financial discipline while undertaking an overhaul of its board. BP’s share price has lagged its industry rivals in recent years after former chief Bernard Looney set the company on course to become a “net zero” energy company under Chierchia – whom he hired months after taking the top job in early 2020. Looney left BP abruptly in September 2023 after admitting that he failed to fully disclose his relationships with female colleagues to the board. BP said Chierchia’s sustainability team would be integrated into other parts of BP’s business to “simplify our structure” and enable “quicker decision-making and clearer accountabilities”. The company has also promised investors it will tighten its spending, particularly in low-carbon energy, and increase its plans to sell off parts of the business as part of its efforts to improve the company’s flagging market value. BP plans to lower its planned spending for 2025 by $500m to about $14.5bn this year. It will also divest between $3bn and $4bn of assets, up from its previous plan to sell off business interests worth $3bn this year. The company aims to sell $20bn in total by the end 2027. The BP chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, said: “In February, we announced a fundamental reset of our strategy – to grow the upstream, focus the downstream an invest with discipline in the transition – and we have already made significant progress.” The company has started up three big oil and gas projects, and made six exploration discoveries.