Shell prepares to replace chief Ben van Beurden

Shell is seeking a new chief executive to replace Ben van Beurden as the 64-year-old prepares to step down after almost a decade at the helm of Europe’s biggest oil and gas company.

Shell’s board began talks with possible internal candidates last summer and has identified at least four potential successors, according to people familiar with the details.

The contenders include frontrunner Wael Sawan, who leads Shell’s integrated gas and renewables division, Huibert Vigeveno, head of Shell’s downstream business, Zoe Yujnovich, head of upstream, and chief financial officer Sinead Gorman, the people said.

Reuters reported on Friday that all four executives had been shortlisted as possible successors ahead of van Beurden’s likely departure at some point next year.

Shell declined to comment. In July, van Beurden told the Financial Times that succession was “not the order of the day” but talked extensively about his legacy as chief executive.

“For me, and for many people at Shell for that matter . . . it is really important that you do the right thing so that in retirement, when that will eventually come, you can look your grandchildren in the eye and say ‘this is what I did to make the world a better place for you’,” he said.

In nine years in the top job, van Beurden oversaw the $52bn acquisition of BG Group, relocated the company’s headquarters to London and overhauled its strategy with a commitment to reduce oil production and slash emissions.

But the Dutch executive, who has spent his entire 39-year career at Shell, has also faced criticism, not least in his native Netherlands where a court last year ruled that Shell needed to cut emissions faster.

Big Oil chief executives rarely serve much longer than 10 years and initial preparations for van Beurden’s departure began shortly after the installation of Sir Andrew Mackenzie as chair in May last year, the people said. Those plans may have advanced more quickly had former chief financial officer Jessica Uhl not announced her own plans to leave the company in March, they added.

Shell’s senior leadership has changed significantly in the past 12 months. The former head of integrated gas and renewable energy, Maarten Wetselaar, once considered a likely replacement for van Beurden, left the company in October after 25 years. Analysts speculated at the time that Wetselaar, who went on to become chief executive of the Spanish oil and gas group Cepsa, had left once it was clear he would not get the top job at Shell.

Wetselaar was replaced by Sawan, then head of upstream. The appointment was intended to give Sawan experience running what is now Shell’s most important division, the people said.

Sawan, a Canadian citizen who trained as an engineer, has long been viewed as a rising star in Shell. He joined the company in 1997 and has been a member of its executive committee since July 2019. He previously ran the company’s oil and gas projects in Qatar and its deepwater business from Houston.

In the same reshuffle, Yujnovich, 47, who started her career at the mining company Rio Tinto, joined the eight-member executive committee as upstream director. She was previously chair of Shell’s businesses in Australia.

Gorman became chief financial officer in April following Uhl’s departure.