The eight-hour flight back from the Caribbean must have felt like an eternity.
Lord Browne of Madingley had spent New Year holidaying before what he already
knew was going to be the most challenging period of his 40-year career at BP.
The company was bracing itself for a scathing report into an explosion at one
of its American oil refineries in 2005 that claimed the lives of 15 workers.
There were question marks over BP’s strategy, and Lord Browne was nursing the
bruises from a succession battle the previous summer with his chairman,
Peter Sutherland.
Like his good friend Tony Blair, there was mounting speculation over what one
of the most successful chief executives of his generation would do when he
retired in 2008.
But on January 5, the day before Lord Browne was due to fly home, the
intensely private 59-year-old’s worst nightmare had come true.
On taking a call from the BP press office, he discovered that his former
partner of four years, Jeff Chevalier, had contacted a tabloid newspaper
offering to sell the story of their relationship.
He was Lord Browne’s first real boyfriend and he was ready to lift the lid on
Lord Browne’s innermost thoughts about BP, his colleagues, trips to see
Colonel Gaddafi in Libya and his relationship with No 10.
BP had been dubbed “Blair Petroleum” after hiring Anji Hunter, the Prime
Minister’s former gatekeeper, as its director of communications.
Lord Browne had previously offered to help Mr Chevalier with his “transition”
back to a normal life after a relationship spent sharing multimillion pound
homes, five-star hotels, private jets and visiting cocktail parties hosted
by London’s political and cultural elite.
But finding himself out of work and on the dole, Mr Chevalier’s patience ran
out and he decided to spill the beans.
Within just 16 weeks, one of the most successful and powerful businessman of
his generation was reduced yesterday to carrying his private possessions out
of BP’s St James’s Square headquarters.
He had accepted on returning to Britain in January and reading Mr Chevalier’s
claims that he should leave this July, 17 months earlier than originally
planned. But yesterday’s revelations meant he had no choice but to leave at
once.
The man who had transformed BP from a bit-part player into a world leader,
producing more oil and gas each day than most countries, and worth nearly
£110 billion, was heading home with his image tarnished forever.
Lord Browne’s sexuality was already an open secret in the oil and gas
industry. Few have tried to “out” him before, preferring instead to comment
knowingly on his love of opera, the ballet and his close relationship to his
mother, Paula, an Auschwitz survivor like his father, Edmund.
Until her death seven years ago, Paula had lived in a flat within reach of
Lord Browne’s Chelsea home. But what will amaze and sadden Lord Browne’s
friends in the business world is just how his reputation has unravelled – Mr
Justice Eady remarked that he would be careful in taking anything that Lord
Browne said at “face value”.
Lord Browne in court was forced to admit that he had lied about meeting Mr
Chevalier while exercising in Battersea Park. That and other details of his
private life, jealously guarded for his entire career, were suddenly laid
bare for the world to see.
Court documents reveal how Lord Browne and Jeff Chevalier in fact became
partners in 2002. During that time, Mr Chevalier enjoyed a lifestyle few
could dream of, with Lord Browne providing food, travel and clothes.
Lord Browne, a erudite collector of fine painting and photography, was a
self-confessed chain smoker. On Desert Island Discs last year he
revealed his luxury would be a “lifetime of fine cigars”.
Their relationship became well known, to the point where Mr Chevalier
accompanied the BP chief executive to social events and trips connected with
the company.
During one, according to the judgment, Mr Chevalier claimed that Lord Browne
on “realising that my clothing was not formal enough for being in public
with him, took me to the Venice Prada shop to buy me more formal wear.
“He would continue to buy me an array of clothing so that I could be
presentable once he began to introduce me to his friends and acquaintances.”
Mr Chevalier also claimed that on discovering his visa was due to run out,
Lord Browne helped him to stay in the country by paying for a university
course so that he could be classed as a student.
Lord Browne also set up a mobile phone ringtone company for his lover, taking
a place on the company’s board along with another BP executive.
After choosing to follow in his father’s footsteps and join BP from Cambridge
University in 1966, Lord Browne enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks at
the oil company and impressed everyone with his dedication and work ethic.
On taking over as chief executive in 1995, he launched into a strategy that
would transform BP through a series of multibillion pound takeovers.
Once dubbed the “Sun King” of oil, he changed not just the nature of the
business, then reliant on the North Sea and Alaska, but the culture of the
company and the image of the industry it began to dominate.
In just over ten years, Lord Browne has been credited for taking BP’s market
value from £20 billion to nearly £110 billion. But just as he was closely
associated with its success, he has been unable to separate himself from its
failures.
His dramatic departure comes as BP battles the worst period in its history. US
regulators savaged its safety record this year over the refinery blast at
Texas City and pointed to a growing pressure for managers to cut costs.
A series of leaks at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska has dragged BP’s
environmental record through the mire and it also faces an investigation in
the United States into allegations that BP traders rigged the propane market.
What he didn’t want published
Lord Browne sought an injunction to ban the reporting of details of a
number of key claims made by Mr Chevalier, including:
— that Lord Browne discussed with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown the prospect of
BP taking an “important strategic decision”
— that Tony Blair discussed with Lord Browne life after government and
aspects of his own character
— that Lord Browne and Mr Chevalier had dinner with Peter Mandelson and
his boyfriend at one of Lord Browne’s homes, where they discussed “European
Union policy and Chinese textile quotas”
— Remarks supposedly made by Lord Browne about colleagues at BP
— that Lord Browne discussed with the Chancellor a proposed scheme for
the benefit of BP’s customers, which the latter opposed
— that Lord Browne did not want aspects of his private life revealed as
it would “reflect badly on BP”
— that the couple stayed at the Venice flat of a “well-known
entertainer” in 2005
— that Lord Browne gave Mr Chevalier a “large sumn of money” over a four
year period
— that Lord Browne visted Colonel Gadaffi in Libya accompanied by a
serving or former secret service agent
