Bernard Looney, the former chief executive of BP who stepped down suddenly last year, has met industry players in the United Arab Emirates over potential comeback projects.
The former North Sea engineer resigned as chief executive of BP last September after the FTSE 100 company’s board found he had not been “fully transparent” with them about his workplace relationships.
He had told the company about a “small number of historical relationships with colleagues”, which the board initially was satisfied with.
According to The Times, Looney, 53, has held talks with Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, head of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), and with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser.
The discussions are said to have included whether the former BP boss could play a role in state-backed investments, although not over a position within Adnoc.
A spokesman for Adnoc said that it had “not held any discussions” with Looney, but did not comment on whether discussions had taken place with Jaber, who is also the UAE’s minister of industry and chairman of Masdar, the Gulf state’s biggest renewable energy company.
Looney declined to comment.