LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - BP on Thursday appointedHelge Lund, a former head of Norway's Statoil, as itsnext chairman to replace Carl-Henric Svanberg, who has held thepost for almost nine years.
Lund will join BP at a time when the British oil and gascompany is enjoying one of its fastest growth periods in recentdecades, having recovered from the 2010 deadly Deepwater Horizonspill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lund will join BP's board as chairman designate and anon-executive director on Sept. 1 and will become chairman onJan 1, the oil major said.
"Our industry is changing faster than ever as the worldfocuses on meeting the dual challenge of more energy with feweremissions ... Helge has a track record of leadership inaddressing these issues," Svanberg said.
Lund, who is also chairman of Denmark's Novo Nordisk AS, will stand down as a director at oilfield servicecompany Schlumberger with immediate effect. Lund hasbeen a Schlumberger director since June 2016.
He was CEO of BG Group from 2015 to 2016, when the companywas acquired by Shell, and prior to that served aspresident and CEO of Statoil for 10 years from 2004.
He also served on the board of directors of Nokiafrom 2011 to 2014.(Reporting by Ron Bousso and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru;Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)