BP CEO Who Cut His Teeth on Crisis Now Faces Toughest Test Yet

Murray Auchincloss had just returned to BP Plc’s London headquarters from a long stint in other corners of the company’s global empire, when everything changed in an instant.

Oil was gushing out of a drilling vessel that exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 people. It was April 2010, and the Deepwater Horizon disaster was about to become the largest-ever marine oil spill in the US and the most monumental crisis in BP’s 100-year history, costing $65 billion. Auchincloss’s new job as chief of staff to the CEO put him right in the middle of the response.

Fast forward to 2025, and Auchincloss, now chief executive officer himself, ...