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"Removed Without Warning": Ex-BP Chairman Blasts Abrupt Ouster As Wall Street Gets Spooked
The abrupt Tuesday morning firing of BP Chairman Albert Manifold by the board certainly raised eyebrows, given his key role in the company's turnaround effort: unwinding years of underperforming green-energy bets and steering the oil major back toward its oil-and-gas business.
The board cited "serious concerns" tied to "important governance standards, oversight, and conduct" as the core reason for Manifold's removal. But the explanation remains vague, leaving Wall Street desks wondering exactly what prompted such a sudden and aggressive move against the chairman.
Bloomberg reporters reached out to Manifold for his perspective on the firing. He said, "I was removed without warning and without explanation."
"I dispute entirely the characterization of my conduct and I will not allow a false narrative to go unchallenged," Manifold continued.
The outlet spoke with people close to BP, who requested anonymity, and said the firing was tied to Manifold's "aggressive behavior" toward employees and mishandling of sensitive information. They also noted that he was seeking to bypass the board.
Manifold told the reporters, "During my time as chairman, I worked to drive genuine change at BP — cutting costs, challenging excess, and holding the organization to higher standards," adding, "The board's statement this morning acknowledged the focus and pace I brought."
The dismissal adds to BP's leadership instability, following years of underperformance and multiple CEO changes.
Also, BP shares in London are nearing the lows set by yesterday's announcement.
Manifold had been a driving force behind an aggressive turnaround, bringing in CEO Meg O'Neill, Big Oil's first female chief executive, while pushing cost cuts, asset sales, and a renewed focus on oil and gas.
Current Board
That strategy had been warmly received by Wall Street analysts after years of frustration with BP's costly move into unprofitable and unreliable green-energy deals.
"We had welcomed what looked to be a turnaround under Mr. Manifold, but we think serious questions do need to be asked about the wider board's decision-making process," Barclays analyst Lydia Rainforth said in a note.
TD Cowen analyst Jason Gabelman noted, "We had believed Manifold could be a driving force behind any updates, including an acceleration of investing in core oil and gas assets and further simplifying the business. Continued leadership change could bring into question pace of change at a minimum."
His removal now raises new questions over whether the company can maintain the turnaround plan.
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Why Hasn't Oil Hit $150 (Yet)?
Authored by Robert Rapier via OilPrice.com,
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Global oil inventories and floating storage have acted as temporary shock absorbers against the Hormuz disruption.
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OPEC spare capacity has stabilized markets, but it cannot fully replace lost Persian Gulf exports indefinitely.
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Prolonged disruption could eventually exhaust market buffers and trigger a much sharper oil price surge.
I think most energy analysts would have been shocked to learn that roughly three months into a total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, oil would be trading at just over $100 a barrel. I certainly expected prices to be significantly higher by now. The physical math seems indisputable: take that much supply off the market, and prices should respond quickly and decisively.
Oil prices have risen sharply, to be clear. But we are still short of the levels seen following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, or of the all-time highs set just before the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Instead of the $150 oil many anticipated, prices have climbed, but not to catastrophic levels. It is easy to look at this and conclude that the market has absorbed the shock. But that interpretation risks confusing resilience with delay. What we are seeing is not a resolution. It is a temporary buffer.
The Market's Hidden Shock AbsorbersThe biggest reason the oil market hasn't reacted more violently to the Strait of Hormuz closure is simple: the world entered this crisis with more inventory than many analysts appreciated. Those barrels have acted as a shock absorber. They don't eliminate the problem. They just delay it.
Global commercial stocks have been drawing for weeks. OECD inventories are now below their five-year average, and independent trackers like Vortexa and Kpler show steady declines in floating storage as well. None of this looks dramatic on a chart. The drawdowns are orderly, and prices have risen, but not explosively. On the surface, the system appears to be coping.
But inventory isn't a strategic reserve. It's working stock; the minimum volume needed to keep refineries, pipelines, and blending operations functioning smoothly. Once inventories fall below those operational thresholds, the system loses flexibility. Refiners have fewer crude options. Blending becomes harder. Small disruptions that were previously absorbed start to become more significant.
That's the part that's easy to miss. The drawdown phase looks calm because inventory declines appear one week at a time. The consequences show up later, when the system runs out of slack. The lower inventories go, the longer and harder the recovery becomes, because the barrels that were used to cushion the shock have to be replaced.
Spare Capacity Isn't A Safety NetAnother reason prices have not spiked higher is the perception that OPEC still has spare capacity.
On paper, that is true. Saudi Arabia and a few other producers maintain the ability to increase output. In practice, however, spare capacity can't completely substitute for lost supply from the Persian Gulf.
First, not all barrels are interchangeable. Differences in crude quality matter for refining configurations. Second, ramping production is not instantaneous. Even when capacity exists, bringing it online takes time and coordination.
Most importantly, spare capacity is finite. Using it to offset a major disruption reduces the system's margin for error. Once that cushion is gone, the market becomes far more sensitive to any additional shock.
So, while spare capacity has helped stabilize prices in the near term, it does not eliminate the underlying imbalance.
Demand Has HelpedDemand has also played a role in keeping prices contained.
Higher prices naturally lead to some degree of demand destruction. Consumers drive less. Airlines hedge or cut routes. Industrial users look for efficiencies. In emerging markets, fuel consumption is particularly sensitive to price increases.
At the same time, global economic growth has been uneven. That has softened the demand side just enough to offset part of the supply shock.
But this is not a structural decline in demand. It is a temporary easing at the margins. If economic activity strengthens, or if consumers simply adjust to higher prices, demand can quickly reassert itself.
When that happens, the buffers currently holding the system together come under even greater strain.
A System Running On Borrowed TimeThe key point is that the market has not solved the problem created by a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It has simply deferred the consequences.
We are effectively financing the disruption with stored barrels, spare capacity, and incremental demand adjustments. Those tools are finite. They were designed to smooth short-term disruptions, not to replace a major artery of global oil trade indefinitely.
This is why the current price level can be misleading. It reflects the system's ability to absorb the initial shock, not its ability to sustain that balance over time.
If the disruption persists, the math becomes increasingly unforgiving.
What Happens NextThere are two broad paths from here.
The first is resolution. If the Strait reopens or flows are partially restored, the system can begin to rebuild inventories and normalize. In that scenario, prices may stabilize or even decline from current levels, but a return to pre-war prices is unlikely anytime soon.
The second path is continuation. If the disruption drags on, inventories continue to fall, spare capacity is further depleted, and the margin for error disappears. At some point, the market is forced to reprice the remaining supply more aggressively.
That is when the move toward $150 becomes much more plausible. It's not necessarily because something new has happened, but because the buffers have been exhausted.
The TakeawayThe fact that oil has not reached $150 after three months of a major supply disruption means the market had more short-term flexibility than many anticipated. But flexibility is not the same as permanence.
The current equilibrium is being maintained by drawing down resources that cannot be replenished quickly. As those resources diminish, the system becomes increasingly fragile.
In that context, the absence of a price spike should not be read as reassurance. It should be seen as a warning that the adjustment process is still unfolding.
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Samsung Inks Labor Deal, Averts Chip Strikes As AI Bonus Boom Fuels Ferrari Purchases
Global stocks pushed higher on Wednesday as momentum in AI and memory chips fueled a continued risk-on rally. The MSCI All Country World Index, South Korea's Kospi, and Japan's Nikkei all hit record highs.
The rally was led by chip stocks, with SK Hynix and Micron's market values topping $1 trillion for the first time. Sentiment from Tuesday into Wednesday was fueled by a bullish note from UBS analyst Tim Arcuri on Micron, which ended 19% higher in the US.
Sentiment on Wednesday was boosted after Samsung's largest union approved a labor deal that gives chip workers an average bonus of roughly $340,000, avoiding what could have been a devastating strike that might have disrupted the global memory chip supply chain amid historic demand from data center buildouts.
Samsung and its labor union have buried the hatchet and signed a new wage agreement earlier today. This means the company will not face any chip production disruption.
The signing ceremony took place earlier today at Samsung Electronics’ The UniverSE learning center in Giheung,… pic.twitter.com/XIybSV0Cdg
Nikkei Asia reported that the labor deal signed earlier this morning set aside 10.5% of the company's operating profit for the worker bonus pool.
Nikkei Asia outlined four important facts of the wage deal that averts chip strikes:
Who gets what?
Under the terms of the agreement, the bonus will be paid to 78,000 employees in Samsung's device solutions division, which produces all types of semiconductors.
Employees in the memory business unit are expected to reap the biggest share, as they generate the largest portion of the company's profits. Assuming Samsung's memory business unit reports 200 trillion won of operating profit this year, its employees are expected to be paid an average bonus of 600 million won in the form of company shares in January 2027.
They can sell one-third of those shares immediately. But they must hold one-third of them for at least a year and the remainder for two years.
Other units, meanwhile, will be paid far less. For instance, employees in the foundry unit, which produces contract chips for outside customers, are expected to get bonuses of 200 million won each. The same rules as for the device solutions business apply.
Is this bigger than SK Hynix's bonuses?
Samsung rival SK Hynix faced -- and resolved -- a similar dispute with its own workers last year. The company said it plans to use 10% of its 2026 operating profit for bonuses to be paid early next year. Employees can choose to take the payments in cash or company shares.
An average SK Hynix employee can expect a bonus of about 400 million won, assuming, based on first-quarter results, the company posts 140 trillion won of operating profit this year. But with brokerage houses expecting an even bigger full-year profit figure, its bonus payments could end up topping Samsung's.
As a leading supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips for AI computing, SK Hynix has ridden the artificial intelligence boom to record profits and a trillion-dollar valuation. Samsung's union even cited its rival's success when presenting its case to management for bigger bonuses.
Who's unhappy with the deal?
While Samsung's semiconductor workers are expected to enjoy fat bonuses, their counterparts in the device experience, or DX, division, which produces smartphones, TVs and home appliances, are being left with comparatively tiny bonuses. They will receive just 6 million won in special payments, also in the form of company shares.
A small union representing them had filed a court petition to try to block the deal as DX workers were left out of Wednesday's agreement. But the court rejected their claim, saying it respected the bigger unions' right to negotiate with management.
What could the deal mean for South Korean labor policy?
The Samsung unions' victory in winning such a large bonus could increase pressure on the government to create systems for workers in more fields to negotiate for a share of profits, though the effects of such arrangements could be limited to a small number of industries.
The Federation of Korean Trade Unions expressed hope that the Samsung deal "will serve as the starting point for serious discussions on 'growth through shared gains.'" It called on the government to establish "fair distribution mechanisms so that the enormous productivity gains and profits generated are not concentrated in the hands of a few."
Corporate groups, however, were quick to point out that the situation at Samsung is a unique case of an industry in the middle of an exceptional boom. "Labor should not generalize this and spread excessive demands for incentives across industries," the Korea Enterprises Federation said in a statement.
The case is not likely to spur policy changes or have broad ripple effects throughout the economy because most industries do not generate the massive profits currently being logged at major chipmakers, said Lee Byoung-hoon, a professor at Chung-Ang University. "There is only a small number of companies that can pay these kinds of huge bonuses, like semiconductors or shipbuilding or automakers," Lee told Nikkei Asia.
"So negotiation of these big bonuses will be a big issue, but it will apply to only a small portion of the workforce in [South] Korea," Lee said.
Last week, we noted that the sudden wealth effect of the AI memory boom has spurred some Samsung and SK Hynix workers to panic-buy Ferraris and other exotic sports cars.
Meanwhile...
The AI bubble continues to inflate into late spring, soon to be early summer, with global risk appetite and chip momentum showing little evidence of being derailed by the US-Iran war, at least so far.
Tyler Durden Wed, 05/27/2026 - 06:55