Helge Lund succeeded Carl-Henric Svanberg on 1 January 2019 as chairman of BP Plc board of directors,[136] and Bernard Looney succeeded Bob Dudley on 5 February 2020 as chief executive.[137] Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, BP claimed that it would "accelerate the transition to a lower carbon economy and energy system" after announcing that the company had to writedown $17.5 billion for the second quarter of 2020.[138]