BP's Long-Awaited Revival Is Marred by Unforced Errors
BP is wrong in its efforts to silence dissenters.
Photographer: Jason Alden/BloombergBP Plc and its shareholders were poised for a celebration this week. After several punishing years, its annual meeting on Thursday should have marked a triple coronation: a new chairman, a new chief executive officer and a new strategy that — finally! — looks set to make money. But even with its shares trading at a 16-year high, the oil giant has managed to turn the gathering into a rancorous assembly.
The trouble started when Follow This, a Dutch campaigning group on climate issues, tabled resolutions backed by a tiny group of investors asking BP and its rival Shell Plc to provide financial plans for a hypothetical scenario where global oil and gas demand starts to fall. Shell agreed to put the resolution to a vote at its annual meeting in May; BP declined, on what seems like a technicality. The company says the campaigner failed to table a “resolution that was directive or mandatory,” so it doesn’t consider the request legal. The matter may end in court.