BP to sell German oil refinery as part of $20bn cost-cutting plan
BP has agreed to sell its giant German oil refinery site in Gelsenkirchen to the investment firm Klesch Group as part of the British oil company’s plan to sell off $20bn (£15bn) worth of assets and cut its costs.The value of the sale was not disclosed but BP said it would save the oil company about $1bn of underlying operating expenditure at the complex, which processes about 12m tonnes of crude oil every year, mainly as fuel for cars and aircraft.The sale has also enabled BP to raise its cost-cutting target to between $6.5bn and $7.5bn by 2027, or almost a third of its cost baseline in 2023.
It will also move forward the embattled oil company’s divestment programme, which has now reached more than $11bn of its $20bn target by the same year.BP has been on a mission to shed assets and reduce the complexity of the 117-year-old company after a leadership overhaul that followed a failed attempt to become a green energy business, which dampened its market value.The company is also planning a full return to the UK capital by moving its global headquarters to a new development on London’s South Bank.Although its leadership is based at the official global HQ on St James’s Square in central London, many of its technical teams are based in Sunbury, Surrey.Once the move is complete, in early 2028, the company will be based at the 17,800 sq metre (192,000 sq ft) Timber Square office scheme on the South Bank, just a mile away from the global HQ of its European oil rival Shell.
The new BP chief executive, Meg O’Neill, will join the company from Australia’s Woodside Energy in April as the first external hire to step into the company’s top job and the first woman to helm a leading listed oil company,O’Neill’s surprise appointment was made late last year, weeks after BP appointed Albert Manifold to chair its board,Manifold replaced Helge Lund, who presided over the oil company’s failed attempt to adopt a green energy agenda,The company’s decision to cut spending on fossil fuels in favour of large bets on offshore windfarms was blamed for BP’s struggle to keep pace with industry rivals, including Shell, which were better able to profit from the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,As BP’s third chief executive in under five years, O’Neill is expected to face pressure from disgruntled shareholders, including the New York activist hedge fund Elliott Management, to improve the company’s fortunes as well as renewed calls from green groups to end their contribution to the climate crisis.
O’Neill is expected to take home at least £11.7m this year after BP agreed to compensate her for the share awards she was in line to receive over the next five years in her previous role.The payday is more than double the £5.3m pay packet earned by Murray Auchincloss, BP’s former chief financial officer who left the role of chief executive late last year after less than two years in the job.BP said Gelsenkirchen’s 1,800 employees at the integrated refinery complex, along with those supporting logistics and sales infrastructure, would join Klesch once the deal completes in the second half of this year.
Jack Draper adds new string to his bow as he rebuilds his game
Two and a half hours into one of the most unforgettable battles of his career, Jack Draper resolved to attack without hesitation, regardless of the outcome. On two pivotal points in his Indian Wells fourth-round match against Novak Djokovic, at 4-4 in the tie-break and then on match point at 6-5, Draper forced himself inside the baseline and unleashed two backhands, those shots driving him to victory.It would have been understandable for Draper to have played passive tennis in those decisive moments. Not only did Indian Wells mark his second ATP tournament back after sustaining a bone bruise to his left arm that forced him off the tour for seven months, the injury has forced him to make dramatic changes to his game.Draper returns to the circuit using natural gut strings in a hybrid string setup
Judge in rugby brain injury lawsuit tells legal teams to hurry up as cases drag on
The judge overseeing the pretrial phase of the two landmark litigation cases about brain injuries in rugby has issued another rebuke to the legal teams on both sides over their lack of progress.Senior Master Jeremy Cook started the latest round of case management hearings by reminding both the defendants and the claimants that “it won’t have escaped anybody’s notice that some of these claims are now over five years old, and we haven’t made much progress”.Since the cases involve claims of degenerative brain diseases, Cook said, time is at a premium. He has told both sides to provide him with written updates between now and a scheduled case management hearing in October, when both sides will be required to have identified their lists of 28 lead claimants from among the hundreds involved.The idea is these 28 will then be whittled down into a smaller group, who will represent the entire cohort
The WNBA’s new labor deal explained: what it means for pay, power and the league’s future
The WNBA and its players’ union (WNBPA) have reached a verbal agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, ending 17 months of negotiations after players opted out of the previous deal and averting mounting fears of a strike.The agreement would be the sixth in league history and is being framed by both sides as a major step forward for player empowerment and the league’s growth.Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Wednesday the two sides have “aligned on key elements”, though a formal term sheet still needs to be finalized. Union leaders echoed that sentiment, calling the deal a reflection of players using their collective voice.Full details have not yet been released, and the agreement must still be ratified
Oh deer! Rory McIlroy puts elk on the Masters champions dinner menu
Elk as the key to Masters success: who had any i-deer? Rory McIlroy will serve starters made from the meat of the North American animal at Augusta National next month in tribute to his food of choice before winning the Masters last year.The wine McIlroy drank to toast victory, food that conjures memories of his childhood in Belfast and a dish made by his mother, Rosie, also feature in the Masters champion’s dinner for 2026. In a nod to the venue’s attention to detail, McIlroy revealed that chefs from Augusta made a special visit to a New York restaurant to replicate his favourite tuna recipe.McIlroy will begin his Masters defence from 9 April. Two days earlier, he hosts fellow past winners in the annual gathering in the Augusta clubhouse
‘People will always hate but my opinion is all that matters’: GB sprinter Amy Hunt on fame, abuse and becoming ‘an icon’
The 23-year-old who went viral last year has plenty of targets for 2026, starting with the World Indoor Championships in PolandAmy Hunt’s mind is flashing back to the moment she unwittingly went viral last September. As untrammelled joy charged through her body, the BBC asked about her unusual journey from an English degree at Cambridge to a shock 200m world championship silver medal. Hunt’s response quickly became a cri du coeur to young girls everywhere: “You can be an academic badass and a track goddess.”As the 23-year-old prepares for the World Indoor Championships in Poland that start on Friday, she reveals her remark was entirely spontaneous. “As soon as I said it, I was like: ‘Oh my gosh, I’m on the BBC, can I even say that? Are they going to bleep that out?’” she says, smiling
Other nations danced for joy at the World Baseball Classic. Team USA played toy soldiers
On the morning of the World Baseball Classic final between the United States and Venezuela, the headline of the New York Times daily briefing read, “America, alone,” in reference to the unwillingness of the country’s traditional allies to join the war with Iran. The revived rhetoric of America First, once a restoration of the isolationist, often Nazi-sympathetic sentiments of the 1930s, has coalesced into current policy, status, attitude: America by itself, making its own rules, intent on largely playing alone by them.Venezuela won the final, thrillingly, 3-2 over Team USA, but not before the hosts extended that isolationism with a sourness that produced a comically vapid extension of American bravado, and nearly undermined a tournament that in its 20th year is at last becoming one of baseball’s great successes.The WBC was a two-week block party. Canada, fresh off the Toronto Blue Jays’ American League pennant, reached the quarter-finals for the first time
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