BP has delayed a New York investor event to allow boss Murray Auchincloss to recover after a medical procedure.
The oil giant said: “Mr Auchincloss has recently undergone a planned medical procedure from which he is recovering well.
“He will be back in the office by February.”
Its capital markets event will be delayed from February 11 in New York until February 26 and will instead take place in London “to ensure his full recuperation”.
The group confirmed its annual results will go ahead on February 11 as planned.
Mr Auchincloss was appointed to the top role in January last year, having been acting chief executive since September 2023 after the surprise resignation of Bernard Looney. He was previously the chief financial officer.
Mr Looney had been in the role since February 2020 after spending his career at BP, having joined as an engineer in 1991. He acknowledged at the time of his resignation he had not been “fully transparent” in his disclosures about his work relationships.
BP said the company sought assurances from Looney in 2022 about the relationships but has concluded that his statements were “inaccurate and incomplete.”
Details of Mr Auchincloss’s medical recovery came as BP said in an update ahead of full-year figures that upstream oil and gas production in the fourth quarter was lower than the previous three months, while it expects oil trading to be “weak”.
It said lower refining margins would impact results by between $100 million (£82 million) and $300 million (£246 million).
The group also said it expects impairments of up to $2bn (£1.6 billion) and higher-than-forecast annual charges of around $600 million (£491 million) in its other businesses and corporate division due to foreign exchange losses.
BP said that oil prices were sharply lower in the final three months of 2024, at $74.73 a barrel on average, compared with $80.34 a barrel in the third quarter.
The update is the latest sign of tougher trading across the sector at the end of last year, following FTSE 100 rival Shell last week, which said it expects profits in its gas business to be “significantly lower” in the fourth quarter than the previous three months.
