London, March 26, 2026, 11:54 GMT
BP shares rose about 1.2% to around 574 pence in London on Thursday, outperforming a falling FTSE 100, as Brent crude jumped past $105 a barrel after hopes of a quick easing in the Iran conflict faded. 1
The move matters because energy is one of the few places investors can still hide from the latest inflation scare. The FTSE 100 was down 1.1% by 1013 GMT, but the sector’s energy index was up 0.6%, showing investors are rotating back into oil producers when crude spikes. 2
For BP, each move in oil now lands harder because the company halted share buybacks — repurchases of its own stock — in February to cut debt and send more cash to its core oil and gas business. BP ended the quarter with $22 billion of net debt and is targeting $14 billion to $18 billion by 2027; finance chief Kate Thomson said hitting that level would not “automatically trigger” a return to buybacks. 3
MUFG analyst Soojin Kim said “ongoing military escalation” and tighter tanker movement were still straining global energy markets. Brent was up $3.51 at $105.73 a barrel by 0908 GMT, after losing more than 2% on Wednesday. 4
AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth said Britain’s “outsized exposure” to energy had helped the FTSE 100 “pull ahead of the market pack” earlier this week. That trade is back again, even as higher yields and revived rate-hike bets hit most other sectors across Europe. 5
There is another pressure point. Follow This and allied European investors managing $1 trillion gave BP until April 1 to add a shareholder resolution to the agenda for its April 23 annual general meeting, or face court action. The measure seeks more disclosure on how BP would navigate falling long-term oil and gas demand. BP said, after taking legal advice, that the proposal was not valid. 6
Chairman Albert Manifold said this month that a “leaner board is a more agile board” as BP pushes back toward oil and gas, and Meg O’Neill is due to take over as chief executive in April. 7
Rival Shell is part of the same picture. Follow This has filed a similar resolution for Shell’s May 19 meeting, and Shell and Exxon kept their buyback plans in place when BP paused a $750 million quarterly programme in February. 6
But the rally could reverse fast if crude cools. On March 23, BP fell 2.2% and Shell dropped 4.2% after a brief de-escalation signal from Washington knocked oil lower; Barclays said its base case still assumes Strait of Hormuz traffic normalises by early April, a path it sees as consistent with Brent averaging $85 a barrel in 2026, while a longer disruption could reprice oil toward $100-$110. 8
Templeton Global Equity Group portfolio manager Craig Cameron said the harder question for investors is the conflict’s duration and what might create “an off-ramp or a resolution.” For BP, that leaves a stock being pulled by two forces at once: firmer oil prices in the near term, and a company still trying to cut debt and prove its reset can deliver. 9
