The shares of British oil and gas giant, BP, plummeted as much as 7% at the start of trading on Monday after announcing its decision to sell its near 20% stake in Russian state oil firm Rosneft.
On Sunday, the London-headquartered oil firm announced that it will sell its $14 billion (19.75% voting stake) stake in Rosneft after facing pressure from the UK government. It is unclear who BP would sell it to.
In addition, the firm said that its CEO, Bernard Looney, will also resign from the Rosneft board with “immediate effect”.
After the plunge, the firm's shares recovered but remained 6.3% lower at 8.30am.
BP's exit is expected to have significant financial repercussions for the firm since Rosneft contributed around $2.7 billion to BP’s bumper $12.8bn profits last year.
It's worth noting that BP's chairman, Helge Lund, described Russia's attack on Ukraine as "an act of aggression" with "tragic consequences".
