BP names new chief of U.S. division
Move is part of CEO’s effort to do away with traditional structure
British oil major BP has promoted Denver-based executive David Lawler to lead the company’s U.S. operations.
Lawler will succeed Susan Dio as chairman and president of BP America on July 1, the company said Thursday. Lawler, CEO of BP’s shale arm BPX Energy, will retain that title and split his time between Denver and Houston.
The change is among efforts by
CEO Bernard Looney, who took the helm at BP in Feb- ruary, to get rid of the traditional Big Oil corporate structure and to reduce the number of senior managers to about 120 from 250.
“As we welcome our new leadership team, we will sadly be saying farewell to many friends and colleagues,” Looney wrote in a memo to employees this month.
One of Lawler’s top tasks will be to reduce emissions and eliminate flaring, the burning of excess natural gas at oil wells, from the company’s shale operations, particularly in West Texas’ Permian Basin.
“Every day the BP America team works to deliver the energy the world needs,” Lawler said. “I’m honored to help them do that while also driving our transformation to become a net zero energy company.”
Both a center of production and a large consumer market, BP’s U.S. operations accounted for more than a third of the company’s $282.6 billion of revenue in 2019. The company employs about 14,000 people in the U.S.
And with hundreds of thousands of acres of oil leases in Texas, BP is one of the most active drillers in the state. The company filed for 342 drilling permits in
2019 and has filed for another 89 this year, Railroad Commission records show.
Lawler previously had been head of BP’s Lower 48 Onshore business. He joined BP from SandRidge Energy of Oklahoma.
Dio is retiring after a 36year career with the company. Before taking over U.S. operations, she led BP Shipping and was head of audits for BP refining and marketing in Houston. She had also run petrochemical plants and refineries from Texas City to Australia.
BP isn’t alone in restructuring its workforce amid turmoil in the oil markets driven by the coronavirus pandemic.
Royal Dutch Shell is offering voluntary buyouts, among other measures, to make the company leaner, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Chevron, which said Wednesday it would layoff 6,000 workers, and Marathon Oil are among companies slashing jobs.
Looney said he would provide more information on the company’s jobs plan in June. He told workers at the end of March that their positions would be safe for three months, as the company considered ways to deal with falling oil prices.