British oil giant BP is offloading its nearly 20 percent stake in Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company after being under pressure from the UK government to make the move since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.
According to The BBC, BP chief executive Bernard Looney has resigned “with immediate effect” from the Rosneft board, as has fellow BP-nominated director Bob Dudley, and BP “will no longer report reserves, production or profit for Rosneft.”
Mr. Looney said that he had been “deeply shocked and saddened” by the situation in Ukraine and it had caused BP to fundamentally rethink its position with Rosneft.
London-based BP has worked in Russia for over 30 years, but the attack on Ukraine “represents a fundamental change,” the company’s chairman, Helge Lund, said in a statement on Sunday, reports WTVR News.
“It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply cannot continue.” Lund went on to say the Rosneft holding “is no longer aligned with bp’s business and strategy.”
It is not clear just how BP will accomplish its exit from Rosneft. A BP spokesman said the company would begin to dispose of its stake, valued by BP at $14 billion at the end of last year – but did not yet know how it would accomplish that.
Meanwhile, Seeking Alpha is reporting that Norwegian energy giant Equinor, UPS, and FedEx have joined the list of companies in distancing themselves from Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine.
“We are all deeply troubled by the invasion of Ukraine, which represents a terrible setback for the world, and we are thinking of all those who are suffering because of the military action,” declared Equinor CEO Anders Opedal.
Additionally, Norway’s government has even ordered its $1.3 trillion oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, to ditch its $3 billion in Russian investments.
UPS and FedEx, two of the world’s largest logistics companies, have suspended shipments to Russia.
