Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 12, 2026
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
BP's interim CEO Carol Howle commits to cost-cutting after leadership change, targeting $4-5 billion in savings by 2027. BP's shares recently outperformed most peers.
LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - BP is maintaining its strategy and focus on cost cuts, its interim CEO Carol Howle told an internal town hall meeting on Monday, according to two people with knowledge of the event.
Howle took on the interim role after BP last month abruptly replaced its chief Murray Auchincloss with Woodside Energy's Meg O'Neill, and will be in charge until O'Neill takes over in April.
Executives at the town hall stressed the focus on keeping control of costs, the sources said.
BP has vowed to cut costs by $4 billion to $5 billion a year from a 2023 baseline by the end of 2027. It had achieved $1.7 billion of that target as of mid-2025.
O'Neill, brought on board by BP's new Chair Albert Manifold, faces the tasks of bringing BP's debt down, helped by $11 billion of a $20 billion divestment programme already announced.
She will also work to further shore up confidence among investors, including U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management, that BP can increase its profitability by re-routing spending to oil and gas.
The company is looking for progress on its Manakin-Cocuina cross-border gas project between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, which is currently lacking a U.S. license, gas and low-carbon chief William Lin said at the town hall, according to the sources.
BP has beaten analyst expectations with its last two quarterly results, and its shares over the last six months have outperformed all peers apart from Exxon.
Over the last five years, however, which mark its now-abandoned attempt to move deeper into low-carbon businesses, its shares have underperformed all its peers.
BP, which is due to report full-year results on February 10, declined to comment.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jan Harvey)
Cost-cutting refers to the strategies and actions taken by a company to reduce its expenses and improve profitability. This can involve reducing operational costs, laying off employees, or finding more efficient processes.
Corporate strategy is a plan that outlines how a company will achieve its goals and objectives. It includes decisions about resource allocation, business direction, and competitive positioning.
An interim CEO is a temporary chief executive officer appointed to lead a company during a transition period, often while a permanent replacement is being sought.
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