Elliott wants BP to change structure, oust strategy chief, source says

By Shadia Nasralla

LONDON (Reuters) -Activist investor Elliott Investment Management wants oil major BP to replace its strategy chief and create separate units for upstream and downstream activities to improve accountability, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.

Elliott holds a stake of a little more than 5% in BP, placing the investor between other top shareholders BlackRock and Vanguard, according to LSEG data.

BP's strategy, sustainability and ventures arm is led by Giulia Chierchia, a key architect of the company's ill-fated focus on renewables under previous CEO Bernard Looney.

Chierchia joined BP from consultancy McKinsey & Company in 2020 as Looney's strategy chief.

Gordon Birrell is responsible for BP's production and operations arm, which includes hydrocarbon upstream activities such as oil exploration and production as well as refineries, which are typically considered a downstream business.

Emma Delaney, meanwhile, is in charge of BP's customers and products division, which includes petrol and convenience store retail sales - businesses often labelled as downstream activities in other groups.

A BP spokesperson was unable to provide immediate comment.

Before Looney became CEO in 2020, BP had separate upstream and downstream units, but under his plan to cut BP's oil and gas production and invest heavily in lower-carbon businesses including renewables, the structure changed.

BP's refining earnings suffered last year, partially due to a prolonged outage at its Whiting refinery in the United States and it reported a death at its bioenergy business in Brazil as well as four life-changing injuries.

Current BP CEO Murray Auchincloss, who served as finance chief under Looney, in February announced the complete abandonment of Looney's strategy as well as cost and spending cuts, vowing to slash BP's debt.

Meanwhile, BP's chair Helge Lund, who supported both Looney's plans and BP's renewed focus on oil and gas, has announced his departure on a flexible timeframe that could stretch into 2026.

But almost a quarter of shareholders at BP's annual general meeting this month voted against his re-election, pushing BP to say it would give an update on the situation within six months.

BP's shares have underperformed peers including Shell and Exxon in the last five years.

Elliott has also urged BP to boost its adjusted free cash flow to $20 billion by 2027 from an oil-price adjusted $8 billion last year through significant spending cuts and cost reductions, another source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla. Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)