(Adds details from statement, background)
Oct 4 (Reuters) - British oil major BP said on Friday
upstream business head Bernard Looney will succeed Bob Dudley as
chief executive officer when he retires next year after holding
the role for nearly a decade.
Looney joined BP in 1991 as a drilling engineer, and took
over as the head of the group's oil and gas exploration,
development and production business worldwide in April 2016.
Dudley, who was appointed to the top job in 2010 following
the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, will leave
after the company's full-year results on Feb. 4 next year, BP
said.
He has led the company through near-bankruptcy after it
caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history and an oil price
crash.
"As the company charts its course through the energy
transition this is a logical time for a change," BP Chairman
Helge Lund said in a statement.
(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)