LONDON — Bob Dudley, the chief executive of BP, will retire in February after nearly a decade in the job, the oil company announced Friday. The company’s chairman, Helge Lund, said in a statement that the move came at a “logical time for a change,” with BP charting its course through a global “energy transition.”

Concerns about climate change are growing, and BP and other energy companies are under pressure from investors, environmentalists and governments — especially in Europe — to reduce the carbon emissions for both its operations and its products.

Bernard Looney, a longtime company insider who runs the crucial business of finding and developing oil and gas, was named as Mr. Dudley’s replacement.

Mr. Dudley, 64, became chief executive in 2010, succeeding Tony Hayward after the blowout of a well in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people and caused a large oil spill. Mr. Dudley, the first American to lead BP, was widely credited with stabilizing the London-based oil giant when its existence was threatened.