Former BP boss Bob Dudley says Looney’s shock exit ‘came out of nowhere’
Bernard Looney gestures as he addresses the gathering on the second day of the three-day B20 Summit in New Delhi on August 26, 2023.
Arun Sankar | Afp | Getty Images
Former BP CEO Bob Dudley on Tuesday said that Bernard Looney’s abrupt resignation last month came as a shock and denied any prior knowledge of the latter’s past personal relationships with colleagues.
Dudley, who worked at BP for 40 years and led the company as CEO for nearly a decade, said the British energy major would soon find a suitable successor and that Looney’s departure would likely not impact the firm’s strategy. Looney succeeded Dudley, who stood down as BP CEO in 2020.
Looney resigned with immediate effect on Sept. 12 after less than four years on the job. He informed the company that he was not “fully transparent in his previous disclosures” about relationships with colleagues prior to becoming CEO, BP said.
Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Looney had promoted women with whom he had undisclosed past relationships, adding that his relevant romantic relationships with BP colleagues took place before his promotion to CEO. CNBC was unable to independently verify the reports.
“It’s a shock to the organization. It came out of nowhere, and I think that the company has great assets, great people,” Dudley told CNBC at the Abu Dhabi International Progressive Energy Congress oil and gas conference on Tuesday.
“It is not about one person, and it won’t be long before there will be replacements in there, and the company will do fine, because it is a really strong company with a wide spectrum to its portfolio,” he added.
Asked whether there was a valid accusation that he might have known more about the situation, given his time mentoring Looney, Dudley replied, “I didn’t know anything about it and neither did the deputy CEO and others and the board. Should have I known? I don’t know. Maybe I was a bit naïve, but I had no clue. No clue at all.”
‘Things at BP are OK’
Looney’s surprise departure has raised questions about the outlook for BP, although current and former executives have insisted that the firm’s medium and longer-term strategy remains the same.
“Things at BP are OK. We move forward as you would expect, despite the change that happens,” interim BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said Monday during a CNBC-moderated ADIPEC panel session.
Auchincloss said the company remains “firmly committed” to the outlook it laid out earlier in the year, emphasizing that “the strategy is not an embodiment of a single individual, it is the embodiment of a management team and a board.”
Murray Auchincloss, interim chief executive officer of BP Plc, speaks during a panel session at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Look, we laid out an update to the strategy in February, seven months ago, that’s a strategy that’s endorsed by the management team, endorsed by the board. One person leaving does not change the strategy,” Auchincloss said.
“It’s focused on providing energy today as cleanly as we possibly can,” he added. “On the transition growth engine, it’s unchanged. We have five of them. We in particular like biofuels, both sustainable aviation fuel and biogas.”
Dudley — who now chairs the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an organization backed by BP, Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil and other Big Oil firms — echoed Auchincloss’ view. He said BP’s strategy would likely remain “business as usual.”
“It was a very aggressive strategy, and I think the world changed when Russia invaded Ukraine. The need for security of supply changed everybody’s views on this,” Dudley said, when asked whether Looney is on the right track, particularly regarding decarbonization.
“Before, it was clean, affordable energy, which meant reducing carbon however you could. After the invasion, look at Europe’s energy flows, no pipelines of gas essentially and shortages around the world,” he added. “You can’t run a big energy company and ignore the facts of the world, so he backed off to a degree on that and to me that made a lot of sense.”
Shares of London-listed BP are up 9.5% year-to-date.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound contributes to this report.
MINI has partnered with lifestyle brand, Deus Ex Machina, to develop this. It’s called the Skeg, and it’s a high-performance, racing-inspired electric concept car that’s sure to lighten the mood – by shedding fully 15% of its mass in the quest for speed.
One of a pair of exclusive, one-off concepts based on MINI’s John Cooper Works cars. The Deus Ex Machina Skeg celebrates MINI’s storied racing history with what the company calls, “a clean, minimal, and quiet rebellion,” that draws on materials, technologies, and philosophies from the world of surfing.
The electric MINI JCW Skeg is stripped to its essentials, with much of the steel and aluminum bits replaced with lightweight fiberglass to maximize acceleration while driving the minimalist aesthetic home. The end result weighs 15% less than the standard car – but makes the same stout 190 kW (258 hp) as the production car.
Surf’s up
The interior is stripped back to the barest essentials, reflecting BMW’s vision of a surf culture that prioritizes function over form. MINI claims the end result resembles a mobile surf shop, with fiberglass trays for wetsuits, specially shaped bins, neoprene seats, and other touches that “bring the surf culture into the interior.”
For their part, the BMW and MINI styling team seems pretty proud of its minimalistic electric endeavor. “In this extraordinary collaboration … every single detail has been crafted with artisanal precision and expertise,” says Holger Hampf, Head of MINI Design. “This has resulted in unique characters that are clearly perceived as belonging together through their distinctive design language and use of graphics.”
The concept retains the production version’s 54.2 kWh li-ion battery pack, up to 250 of WLTP range with the production aero kit, sprints from 0-100 km (62 mph) in just 5.9 seconds. With 15% less mass, though, that should jump to more than 255 miles, with 0-60 times dropping below 5.5 seconds.
I dig it – but I’d skip the surf bits and just appreciate the raw composite, minimalist interior look for what it is. Take a look at the image gallery, below, then let us know what you think of MINI’s Skeg concept in the comments.
MINI Skeg concept | gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: BMW MINI.
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Environment
Volvo Penta teams up with e-power to equip Boels with next-gen Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
Veteran marine and industrial power solutions company Volvo Penta has joined forces with energy solutions provider e-power to build battery energy storage systems (BESS). Volvo Penta’s battery systems for energy storage will power BESS units built by e-power that can be catered to a range of applications, most notably construction rental clients like Boels Rentals in Europe.
Volvo Penta is a provider of sustainable power solutions that currently serves land and sea applications under the Volvo Group umbrella. As more and more of the world goes all-electric, the global manufacturer has also adapted, sharing cultural values with Volvo Group to engineer new and innovative sustainable power solutions.
Nearly 100 years later, Volvo Penta remains an industry leader in marine propulsion systems and industrial engines. As more and more of the world goes all-electric, the Swedish manufacturer has also adapted, sharing cultural values with Volvo Group to engineer new and innovative sustainable power solutions.
For example, all Volvo Penta diesel engines now run on hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO), reducing well-to-wheel emissions by up to 90% across the marine and industrial power industries. On the zero-emissions side, Volvo Penta has expressed its dedication to fossil-free power solutions, including battery electric components to serve heavy-duty applications such as terminal tractors, forklifts, drill rigs, and feed mixers, to name a few.
To leverage its battery electric value chain, Volvo Penta has also ventured into battery systems for energy storage (or BESS subsystems). These energy-dense, purpose-built BESS subsystems can provide portable, sustainable energy for all-electric charging and reduce grid dependency.
Volvo Penta to deploy battery systems for energy storage
Volvo Penta recently announced a strategic partnership with e-power, a Belgian power solutions provider. Together, Volvo Penta and e-power will develop a scalable Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for Boels Rental.
The collaboration continues a long-standing partnership between all three companies. Boels – one of the largest construction rental companies is a long-time customer of e-power generators that utilize Volvo Penta engines. As the company shifts toward electrification and sustainability, it will again turn to those companies to deliver reliable performance.
Volvo Penta’s BESS subsystem comprises battery packs, a Battery Management System (BMS), DC/DC converters, and thermal management, combining to offer a compact, high-density, and transport-friendly solution optimized for rental operations. The company shared that this BESS design is integration-ready, enabling other OEMs like e-power to adapt and scale systems to customer-specific needs. Per e-power business support director, Jens Fets:
We’ve built our reputation on reliability and efficient power systems. Working again with Volvo Penta, this time on battery energy storage, allows us to meet the growing demand for energy in a silent, low-emissions, compact and mobile design—especially in rental applications.
The deployment of these new battery energy storage systems will help Boels cater to its customers’ growing demand for clean, silent, and mobile energy solutions in construction and other industrial applications.
Aside from being more quickly adaptable to customer needs, Volvo Penta says its BESS architecture marks an overall shift in rental power systems. This is welcome news for all who support a cleaner, more sustainable future across all industries.
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That didn’t take long! Just a few hours after Mercedes revealed the screen-heavy interior of its upcoming 2026 GLC EV, photos of the new crossover’s exterior – and that controversial grille! – leaked on Instagram and Reddit. We’ve got them here.
Two days ahead of the GLC EV’s officially schedule global debut, images that reportedly show the new 2026 Mercedes undisguised have leaked on Instagram and Reddit. They show the blocky new light-up grille on the nose of a very smooth, jellybean-like crossover shape that, despite Mercedes’ insistence that it’s moving away from the EQ series’ design language, looks an awful lot like an EQ Mercedes.
Check out the leaked images from kindleauto’s Instagram account, below, and see if you agree with that assessment.
If you need to see more before you feel comfortable commenting on the new SUV’s looks, there’s a few more angles over on the r/mercedes_benz subreddit.
Leaked exterior pictures of the upcoming GLC EV
byu/Quick_Coyote_7649 inmercedes_benz
As with everything else on the internet, take those unofficial images with a grain of salt and maybe wait until the GLC EV’s official reveal in a few days’ time before casting your final vote on the new look – but there’s very little reason to believe the new Mercedes will look terribly different from what you see here.
Will the new grille and tech-forward interior with its massive, 39″ screen and MB.OS software be enough to turn the tide for Mercedes-Benz, enabling it to finally gain some traction in the electric crossover market? That remains to be seen, but the recently updated Tesla Model Y and crisply-styled new BMW iX3 with its 500 miles of range will make it an uphill battle, for sure.
We got a sneak peek at the new GLC back in July, when Mercedes-Benz Group CEO, Ola Källenius said that, “We’re not just introducing a new model – we’re electrifying our top seller.” Back then, we learned that the new GLC EV would have a wheelbase 3.1″ longer than the current ICE-powered model, as well as more head- and leg-room for its occupants and an extra 4.5 cubic feet (for 61.4 total) of cargo space.
Källenius also promised an innovative new 800V electric architecture and the latest battery tech, which will enable the electric GLC to add around 260 km (~160 miles) of WLTP range in just ten minutes thanks to more than 300 kW of charging capability.
SOURCES | IMAGES: kindleauto; Quick_Coyote_7649.
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