By DOUGLAS HAMILTON BP chairman Peter Sutherland said yesterday that oil companies never expected demand for crude to rise to record levels so fast and, as a result, failed to make the investments needed to clear the current supply problems.

By NO BYLINE OIL giant BP has launched a global search for a new chairman, with Peter Sutherland expected to leave within the next 18 months. The company is believed to be focussing on the United States to find Mr Sutherland's successor.

By Nick Bevens LORD Browne has announced plans to step down as chief executive of BP at the end of July, 18 months earlier than he had previously intended.

By KEN SYMON IF you asked business leaders in the UK who of their number they most admire you can be assured that Lord Browne of BP's would be a name you would hear oftrepeated.

By Rupert Steiner, The Business, London Jul. 23--A rift has developed within the board of BP, the world's second-largest oil company, over the future of chief executive Lord Browne.