Best not to say too much about Albert Manifold, who was ousted as chairman of BP last week after only eight months in post over ‘governance oversight and conduct issues’. Manifold called the board’s allegations against him ‘lies’ and writs may be expected to fly. But the broader question is why a 117-year-old company built on long-term collegiate strategy-making has become incapable of holding a stable leadership team together from one year to the next.

Bernard Looney was chief executive from 2020 until he resigned in 2023 after allegations that he misled BP’s board over relationships with colleagues. His successor, Murray Auchincloss, lasted less than two years before being replaced by Meg O’Neill, headhunted from Woodside Energy in Australia. Helge Lund stood down as chairman last year under shareholder pressure to accelerate a shift back to fossil fuels from the focus on renewables previously driven by Looney. Now Manifold has been temporarily replaced by Ian Tyler, a construction industry veteran who was BP’s senior independent director.

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This revolving door reflects, in part, the challenge of the energy world’s about-turn against the previous decade’s net-zero agenda. BP’s business model, based on multi-billion capital projects with 20-year paybacks, has long been in conflict with investors’ demand for short-term fizz........

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