BP faces investor revolt

BP is heading into its April 23 annual meeting with investors trying to block the re-election of chair Albert Manifold, not because of one bad quarter, but because they want proof that BP’s return to bigger oil-and-gas spending will actually pay off. Britain’s Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which represents pension funds with more than 425 billion pounds in assets, told members to vote against Manifold and back a separate shareholder resolution demanding more detail on capital discipline. (reuters.com, yahoo.com) That pension forum is not acting alone. Proxy advisers Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, plus top-10 BP shareholder Legal & General Investment Management, have also supported votes against BP’s wishes, which is unusual because those firms influence huge blocks of shareholder ballots and rarely tell investors to oppose a board. (reuters.com, yahoo.com) The fight is really about a simple question: if BP is putting more money back into oil and gas, what numbers show that those projects are cheaper, safer to execute, and better for long-term returns than the lower-carbon investments it is cutting back? A shareholder resolution coordinated by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility asks BP to publish more information on exactly that. (professionalpensions.com, pensionsage.com) This argument only makes sense in the context of BP’s strategy reset in February 2025. BP told investors then that it would increase spending on upstream oil and gas, cut planned investment in transition businesses, and lower some 2030 climate ambitions after years of weaker-than-hoped-for returns from its green push. (professionalpensions.com, reuters.com) Investors are also angry about process, not just spending. The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum said BP excluded a climate resolution filed by Follow This from the 2026 meeting, asked shareholders to allow online-only annual meetings, and sought to retire earlier climate-reporting resolutions passed in 2015 and 2019. (reuters.com, lapfforum.org) BP’s answer is that the extra disclosure request is unnecessary. The company has said the Follow This proposal is invalid and would be ineffective if passed, and chair Albert Manifold has argued that more reporting on capital allocation would duplicate what BP already publishes while cutting against its push for simpler, more standardized disclosures. (reuters.com, intellectia.ai) Now there is a second problem layered on top of the shareholder revolt. BP said on April 10 that Richard Harding will take over on an interim basis as head of customers and products from April 13, replacing Emma Delaney after Austrian energy group OMV picked Delaney to become its next chief executive in September. (reuters.com, msn.com) That customers-and-products unit is BP’s side of the business that ordinary drivers and airlines actually see: fuels, convenience stores, lubricants, biofuels, aviation fueling, and electric-vehicle charging. Delaney had run it since July 2020, and Harding only returned to BP in February 2026 to lead sales and marketing before being pushed up to the interim top job. (bp.com, reuters.com) So shareholders are arriving at the annual meeting with two separate doubts about the same company. One doubt is whether BP’s board can justify a more oil-heavy strategy with hard return data, and the other is whether BP can keep executing smoothly while one of its biggest operating divisions changes leadership 10 days before the vote. (reuters.com, reuters.com)