Corporate affairs

Helge Lund is chairman of BP Plc board of directors with Bernard Looney as chief executive officer.

Board of directorsedit

As of February 2020, the following individuals serve on the board of BP plc:

• Helge Lund (chairman)
• Bernard Looney (chief executive officer)
• Brian Gilvary (chief financial officer)
• Nils Andersen (independent non-executive director)
• Alison Carnwath, DBE (independent non-executive director)
• Pamela Daley (independent non-executive director)
• Ian Davis (senior independent director)
• Ann Dowling, DBE (independent non-executive director)
• Melody Meyer (independent non-executive director)
• Brendan Nelson (independent non-executive director)
• Paula Rosput Reynolds (independent non-executive director)
• John Sawers, GCMG (independent non-executive director)

Stockedit

BP stock is composed of original BP shares as well as shares acquired through mergers with Amoco in 1998 and the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in 2000. The company's shares are primarily traded on the London Stock Exchange, but also listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. In the United States shares are traded in US$ on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depository shares (ADS). One ADS represents six ordinary shares.

Following the United States Federal Trade Commission's approval of the BP-Amoco merger in 1998, Amoco's stock was removed from Standard & Poor's 500 and was merged with BP shares on the London Stock Exchange. The merger with Amoco resulted in a 40% increase in share price by April 1999. However, shares fell nearly 25% by early 2000, when the Federal Trade Commission expressed opposition to BP-Amoco's acquisition of ARCO. The acquisition was ultimately approved in April 2000 increasing stock value 57 cents over the previous year.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 initiated a sharp decline in share prices, and BP's shares lost roughly 50% of their value in 50 days. BP's shares reached a low of $26.97 per share on 25 June 2010. Shares reached a post-spill high of $49.50 in early 2011.

On 22 March 2013, BP announced an $8 billion share repurchase. The buyback decision followed closure of the TNK-BP deal and it has to offset the dilution to earnings per share following the loss of dividends from TNK-BP. The buyback was also seen as a way to invest excess cash from the TNK-BP deal.

As of 27 May 2018update, major institutional shareholders include BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd. (3.35% as of 14 May 2018update), The Vanguard Group, Inc. (3.12% as at 2 May 2018), Norges Bank Investment Management (2.21% as at 2 May 2018) and Legal & General Investment Management Ltd. (2.07% as of 2 May 2018update).

Branding and public relationsedit

In the first quarter of 2001 the company adopted the marketing name of BP, and replaced its "Green Shield" logo with the "Helios" symbol, a green and yellow sunflower logo named after the Greek sun god and designed to represent energy in its many forms. BP introduced a new corporate slogan – "Beyond Petroleum" along with a $200M advertising and marketing campaign. According to the company, the new slogan represented their focus on meeting the growing demand for fossil fuels, manufacturing and delivering more advanced products, and to enable transitioning to a lower carbon footprint.

By 2008, BP's branding campaign had succeeded with the culmination of a 2007 Effie Award from the American Marketing Association, and consumers had the impression that BP was one of the greenest petroleum companies in the world. BP was criticised by environmentalists and marketing experts, who stated that the company's alternative energy activities were only a fraction of the company's business at the time. According to Democracy Now, BP's marketing campaign amounted to a deceptive greenwashing public-relations spin campaign given that BP's 2008 budget included more than $20 billion for fossil fuel investment and less than $1.5 billion for all alternative forms of energy. Oil and energy analyst Antonia Juhasz notes BP's investment in green technologies peaked at 4% of its exploratory budget prior to cutbacks, including the discontinuation of BP Solar and the closure of its alternative energy headquarters in London. According to Juhasz, "four percent...hardly qualifies the company to be Beyond Petroleum", citing BP's "aggressive modes of production, whether it's the tar sands or offshore".

BP attained a negative public image from the series of industrial accidents that occurred through the 2000s, and its public image was severely damaged after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and Gulf Oil spill. In the immediate aftermath of the spill, BP initially downplayed the severity of the incident, and made many of the same PR errors that Exxon had made after the Exxon Valdez disaster. CEO Tony Hayward was criticised for his statements and had committed several gaffes, including stating that he "wanted his life back." Some in the media commended BP for some of its social media efforts, such as the use of Twitter and Facebook as well as a section of the company's website where it communicated its efforts to clean up the spill.

In February 2012 BP North America launched a $500 million branding campaign to rebuild its brand.

The company's advertising budget was about $5 million per week during the four-month spill in the Gulf of Mexico, totaling nearly $100 million.

In May 2012, BP tasked a press office staff member to openly join discussions on the Wikipedia article's talk page and suggest content to be posted by other editors. Controversy emerged in 2013 over the amount of content from BP that had entered this article. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stated that, by identifying himself as a BP staff member, the contributor in question had complied with site policy regarding conflicts of interest.

Integrity and complianceedit

Investigative journalism by BBC Panorama and Africa Eye aired in June 2019 criticizing BP for the way in which it had obtained the development rights of Cayar Offshore Profond and St. Louis Offshore Profond blocks, off the coast of Senegal in 2017. In 2012, a Frank Timiș company, Petro-Tim, though previously unknown to the oil industry, was awarded a license to explore the blocks despite having no known record in the industry. Soon after, Aliou Sall, brother of Senegal's president, Macky Sall, was hired at the company, implying a conflict of interest, causing public outrage in Senegal. The 2019 program by BBC Panorama and Africa Eye accuses BP of a failure in due diligence when it agreed on a deal with Timis Corporation in 2017. The deal by BP is expected to provide substantial royalties to Frank Timiș despite accusations of initially obtaining the exploration rights through corruption. Kosmos Energy was also implicated. BP refutes any implications of improper conduct. Regarding the acquisition of Timis Corporation interests in Senegal in April 2017, BP states that it "paid what it considered a fair market value for the interests at this stage of exploration/development". However, BP has not made public what was the basis of the valuation, and states that "the details of the deal are confidential". BP argues that "the amount which would be paid separately by BP to Timis Corporation would be less than one percent of what the Republic of Senegal would receive". Senegal's justice ministry has called an inquiry into the energy contracts.

LGBTQ recognitionedit

In 2014, BP backed a global study researching challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and for ways that companies can be a "force for change" for LGBT workers around the world. In 2015, Reuters wrote that BP is "known for their more liberal policies for gay and transgender workers". A 2016 article in the Houston Chronicle said BP was "among the first major companies in the United States to offer LGBT workers equal protection and benefits roughly 20 years ago". BP scored a 100% on the 2018 Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which was released in 2017. Also in 2017, BP added gender reassignment surgery to its list of benefits for U.S. employees. According to the Human Rights Campaign, BP is one of only a few oil and gas companies offering transgender benefits to its employees. BP ranked No. 51 on the list of Top 100 employers for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff on the 2017 Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. Also in 2017, John Mingé, chairman and president of BP America, signed a letter alongside other Houston oil executives denouncing the proposed "bathroom bill" in Texas.