UAE Names Former BP CEO Looney to New Investment Unit Board

(Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates named Bernard Looney, who resigned as chief executive officer of BP Plc after misleading its board, as a director of the country’s new energy investment company.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. will build the firm, called XRG, to spearhead global investments in natural gas, chemicals and low-carbon energy. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan endorsed the board, which also includes the CEO of the state oil producer and the president of Blackstone Inc.

Looney abruptly quit BP last year after it emerged he hadn’t fully disclosed past relationships with colleagues. He’ll now help oversee the UAE’s push to bolster gas trading, chemicals and clean fuels as the country taps its vast oil wealth to prepare for the energy transition.

Adnoc CEO Sultan Al Jaber will be executive chairman of XRG, according to a statement. The firm will start in the first quarter of next year as a unit of Adnoc, with an enterprise value of over $80 billion. It aims to more than double the value of its assets in the next decade, Adnoc said last month.

During his tenure as BP chief and head of the company’s upstream division, Looney was a frequent visitor to Abu Dhabi and a speaker at conferences in the emirate. The British major has been a partner in Abu Dhabi’s main oil fields for decades. Under Looney it also signed up to ventures with Adnoc to explore green energy projects and invest in gas deposits.

Other XRG board members are:

• Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, CEO of Abu Dhabi investment firm ADQ
• Ahmed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, chairman of the UAE President’s Office for Strategic Affairs
• Jasem Al Zaabi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance
• Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone
• Nassef Sawiris, executive chair of OCI Global

(Updates with Looney’s appointment in first paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected Jon Gray’s role at Blackstone.)

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