Albert Manifold, the ousted chair of the British energy giant BP, defended his tenure at the company and vowed to challenge the accusations surrounding his dismissal, adding more uncertainty to a company that has been rocked by executive turmoil in the past few years.
BP abruptly fired Mr. Manifold on Tuesday, saying “serious concerns” had been raised to the company’s board about his leadership, citing “governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable.”
The board named Ian Tyler, a director since last April, as interim chair, and said it would begin a process to find a permanent replacement. It did not provide details on Mr. Manifold’s exit.
In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Manifold said he had been “removed without warning and without explanation.”
“I dispute entirely the characterization of my conduct, and I will not allow a false narrative to go unchallenged,” he said.
BP declined to comment on Mr. Manifold’s response to his firing. Mr. Manifold had not determined how he planned to fight his dismissal, said a person with knowledge of his thinking but was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
BP’s shares fell 4 percent on Wednesday in London, after sliding more than 4 percent the day before.
It is rare for a multinational corporation to have a sudden falling out with a top executive, said Andrew Teacher, a co-founder of the advisory firm Lauder Teacher in London, who called Mr. Manifold’s departure “jarring.”
“Manifold’s vow to fight back against these accusations could also spell trouble for the new, and until recently unencumbered, management team,” he added.
Mr. Manifold, who previously ran a building materials company, CRH, joined the BP board on Sept. 1, and took over as chair on Oct. 1 on the promise to improve returns at the company, which had seen its stock slump in recent years as investors became discontented with its performance.
In December, BP appointed Meg O’Neill, who had led the Australian oil producer Woodside Energy, as its new chief executive. She replaced Murray Auchincloss, who had stepped down under pressure from activist investors over the company’s strategic direction.
Mr. Auchinicloss’s predecessor, Bernard Looney, was fired in 2023 for failing to fully disclose personal relationships with his colleagues. In 2020, Mr. Looney had said he planned to invest $5 billion annually in renewable energy and reduce oil and natural gas production by 40 percent in a decade. But after the war in Ukraine pushed up energy prices, BP reversed course in 2023.
Ms. O’Neill’s arrival last year seemed to calm investors eager for a stronger focus on pumping more oil and gas. BP reported strong earnings in the first quarter of this year, primarily because of “exceptional” performance in oil trading and rising crude prices linked to energy supply disruptions in the Middle East. Its shares are up 20 percent so far this year.
But Mr. Manifold’s ouster could complicate the company’s turnaround plans, analysts at TD Cowen wrote in a research note.
“Mr. Manifold was seen as a driving force of BP strategy,” they wrote. “Continued leadership changes could bring into question pace of change at a minimum.”
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