BP CEO Bernard Looney commits to operations in Russia amid Ukraine disaster

Oil and fuel big BP mentioned Monday that the rising dangers of a Russian invasion of Ukraine aren’t impacting its operations within the massive energy-producing nation.

Talking at an oil and fuel expo convention in Cairo, Egypt, CEO Bernard Looney mentioned the corporate was persevering with to “do enterprise” in Russia even because the Kremlin massed over 130,000 troops alongside the border with Ukraine.

The elevated navy presence is including to hypothesis that Moscow might invade Ukraine in a repeat of the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia has denied these allegations.

“Now we have a big presence in Russia together with a lot of our colleagues and fairly frankly there isn’t any affect on our ongoing operations in Russia,” Looney informed CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at EGYPS 2022.

Russia is the world’s largest oil and fuel producer after the US and as such has a serious affect on international vitality provide, significantly in Europe.

Looney mentioned he is not going to speculate on the end result of rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, however that the corporate will situation a ruling if the state of affairs escalates.

“We’re staying on enterprise and let’s have a look at what’s going to occur within the coming days, weeks and months,” he mentioned.

“If there are penalties like sanctions or no matter, then we’ll totally adjust to them,” he added.

BP has been in Russia for over 30 years and is the nation’s largest international investor via a 19.75% stake in state oil firm Rosneft.

BP’s CEO has beforehand praised Russia’s dedication on points necessary to them.

“After they have an agenda, they have a tendency to get issues achieved,” Looney mentioned Monday.

Referring to Rosneft’s environmental agenda, he mentioned it has Russia’s help to realize its objective of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

“They’ve a really clear environmental and emissions plan. They’re very dedicated to it.”