Shell chief executive officer Ben van Beurden will step down at the end of this year after almost 40 years at the company, to be replaced by the firm’s head of gas and renewables, Wael Sawan.

Mr van Beurden, 64, has steered the company through some of its most turbulent times. The first big move of his tenure as CEO, which began in 2014, was the takeover of rival BG Group, a deal valued at close to $US50 billion ($74 billion) that tested the company’s finances during an oil price slump, but is now paying off as natural gas prices soar.

Bloomberg