BP increasingly looks like a business that cannot get out of its own way. Every time it seems to have got over the last disaster, it trips over its own shoelaces again.
The next man to take an unfortunate tumble is chair Albert Manifold, who has been dismissed following “serious concerns” from the board over “governance oversight” and “conduct issues it deems unacceptable”.
We don’t know quite what that means yet but “conduct issues” are the key words. He did more than just overcharge for taxis.
To say BP has form here is like saying Harry Kane is handy in front of goal.
In 2007, chief executive John Browne stood down after revelations that he lied to a court. Three years later, CEO Tony Hayward bowed to pressure over his handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, widely considered the worst environmental disaster in US history, and stood down.
During the clean-up, he had told reporters “I’d like my life back”, which went down with the families of the eleven people killed exactly as you would expect.
Then, just three years ago, BP chief executive Bernard Looney was fired, lost £32m in bonuses and shares and slunk away for what the company called “serious misconduct”.
He had personal relationships with staff – we are not sure how many – and later gave “inaccurate” assurances about them to his board.
After the news broke about Mr Manifold on Tuesday, Amanda Blanc, senior independent director at BP, said she and the board were “surprised and disappointed” to learn of his behaviour.
Ms Blanc, the chief executive of giant insurer Aviva, is a brilliant woman in a predominantly male world, with the required sense of humour for that task.
She is also no-one’s fool but was perhaps unaware that one of her jobs would be to kick the bad boys out of the nursery.
BP has now had three CEOs and three chairmen in the last five years. That the present CEO is a woman, Meg O’Neill, might come as a relief to investors, who saw the shares tumble 5 per cent to £5.21 today. Even at that reduced price, BP is worth £82 billion.
It is one of the most important companies in the world. What it does is serious and dangerous. Which suggests the board should be a stable place full of safety-first operators.
But it doesn’t look like that from here.
BP’s litany of disasters is too long to list, with the Deepwater Horizon scandal the lowpoint of them all. But another one, in 2007, was when BP was fined $300m (£200m) when its commodity trading arm was caught trying to fix the US propane market.
Willy-nilly, BP has tried to rebrand itself as an environmentally friendly company, giving itself a sunburst logo and the slogan Beyond Petroleum.
This angered green activists, who thought it was nonsense, and shareholders, who thought it would lose them money (it did).
It has reverse-ferreted on this issue so often no-one is quite sure where it stands.
Rita Brown, the no-nonsense BP head of media relations, did not reply to a request for comment about Mr Manifold.
But even those trying to be kind are straining.
Maurizio Carulli, global energy analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said: “The announcement is certainly a surprise, albeit BP has had more than its fair share of senior personnel leaving the company abruptly over the past 20 years.
“Whilst the news is obviously a short-term negative, it is important to remember that BP has made significant operational improvements and strategic refocusing over the past year, and this is the result of the successful efforts of the entire organisation and its management, not just of one person.”
Ashley Kelty, the oil and gas analyst at City broker Panmure Liberum, said: “Another one bites the dust.”
Lindsey Stewart, director of institutional investor content at Morningstar, said: “At this point it’s fair to say BP has the most volatile boardroom of the oil supermajors.”
Elliott Investment Management, the US activist hedge fund which wants to shake BP up, must be pleased.
Mr Kelty added: “This hands Elliott a great stick to beat them with.”
Elliott declined to comment.
Mr Manifold’s removal comes a month after a fifth of BP shareholder votes were cast against his election. The criticism was partly linked to BP’s refusal to include a resolution filed by climate activists at its annual general meeting, with Mr Manifold saying the resolution had not be filed correctly.
The next chair will have to be an oil industry heavyweight, the City insists.
Russ Mould, the City old timer who is now investment director at AJ Bell, said: “Albert Manifold was seen as someone who could have helped to BP forge fresh momentum of its own and get the oil and gas giant to maximise the value of its hydrocarbon assets.
“Even though there had been pressure on BP to move on from his predecessor Helge Lund, not all investors were happy with Mr Manifold’s appointment, though, judging by how 18 per cent of shareholders voted against his appointment at April’s AGM.
“Attempts to move AGMs to an online-only format and change how the company reported on climate issues and its related obligations did not sit well either.”
Whatever the reasons for Mr Manifold’s departure, investors who have stuck with BP through many years of share price underperformance, operational accidents and changes of strategy have reason to be cross. The share price still stands well below its all-time high of 2006 and is no higher now than in 1999.
The backdrop to all this is, of course, the Iran war. A conflict which, if not directly about oil, raises serious questions about our future energy supplies.
BP’s chief executive Ms O’Neill and interim chair Ian Tyler will now both need to reassure that the oil and gas major is on the right track, for the good of the nation, as well as shareholders.
One City observer and oil investor has little sympathy with BP, saying its misfortunes are of its own making.
“It should just be a solid, quite boring business,” he said. “Instead, it is total chaos.”
