EDITORIAL Not Such A Quiet American

摘要

Two years ago Bob Dudley was named BP chief executive — quietly-spoken, courteous and American (a boon, following Macondo), his track record indicated a "safe pair of hands" for a company stricken by events not of his making. But he has suffered brickbats since, not least for the debacle surrounding his attempted "quick win" — the proposed Arctic joint venture with Russian state oil giant Rosneft, eventually torpedoed by BP's partners in TNK-BP. Beyond the Macondo-imposed need to hoard cash and shed assets, BP has lacked narrative — the "strategy" of increased operational cash flow by 2014 merely reflects higher-margin upstream projects already in development — leading some analysts to advocate an upstream-downstream demerger or regionally-determined break-up. But buoyed by strong third-quarter results, Dudley came out swinging this week, offering some justification behind what he has been doing and where he sees BP heading (p7).