May 2, 2007
Words Count
Peter Sutherland, BP’s feisty chairman, has had a strained relationship with John Browne, the company’s chief executive who quit yesterday. Yet he called Lord Browne’s hasty departure - caused by the fact that Lord Browne lied to a judge - a "tragedy" and said his immediate resignation was prompted by the chief executive’s "sense of honour." Though, certainly a "shabby end to a brilliant career," as my colleague Ed Crooks writes, "tragedy" was perhaps an unfortunate word for Mr Sutherland to use. Just weeks ago, at BP’s AGM, one shareholder stood to chastise Mr Sutherland and BP for often calling the company’s Texas City refinery explosion, in which 15 people died, an incident instead of a tragedy. Loren Steffy, of the Houston Chronicle, picked up on the theme, writing in his blog: "A tragedy? No, that would have been more than two years ago in Texas City. Where was Browne’s sense of honour then?"
