By Adam Whittaker
BP faced a shareholder revolt as investors used its annual general meeting to express their frustration, rejecting two of the energy major's resolutions
The oil major's chairman, Albert Manifold, was elected Thursday with 81.8% of the vote at his first AGM, according to preliminary data. His election comes as BP is in the process of a strategic reset and is pouring money back into fossil-fuel exploration and production.
At the meeting, investors expressed frustration over the company's approach to climate disclosures and corporate governance, rejecting two of its proposals.
BP put forward a proposal which, if passed, would have given it the option to host fully virtual AGMs. Another would have removed some climate-related disclosure requirements that investors had voted in favor of at previous meetings. Both resolutions undershot the 75% support threshold needed for approval.
The buildup to the meeting was marked by criticism from some institutional investors and influential shareholder advisory groups about some of BP's resolutions. The omission of a resolution from climate activist group Follow This led some to say that they feared shareholder rights were being eroded.
Not all shareholders were critical. In the days leading up to the vote, Norway's sovereign wealth fund--BP's largest shareholder--came out in support of Manifold.
Manifold said Thursday that decisions relating to this year's resolutions "were made in good conscience." They were made as part of a push to simplify the business.
According to the preliminary data, just over a quarter of investors supported a resolution from the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and some pension funds that called on BP to explain how its strategy of spending big on oil-and-gas production would deliver value for shareholders. BP's management had asked shareholders to reject this resolution.
The resolution received the highest ever vote of support for a management-opposed resolution at BP, the ACCR said Thursday.
The Follow This proposal omitted from the vote by BP had requested the company set out strategies for creating shareholder value under scenarios of declining oil-and-gas demand. A similarly worded resolution was accepted by peer Shell. Legal & General, a top 10 shareholder, said ahead of the meeting that it would vote against Manifold's election in part because of the omission of the resolution.
Write to Adam Whittaker at adam.whittaker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2026 09:59 ET (13:59 GMT)
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