(Reuters) -Shell CEO said on Friday he would rather buy back more of his company’s own shares than launch a takeover bid for rival oil major BP (NYSE: BP ), the Financial Times reported.

"We will always look at these things, but you are also looking to see what is the alternative. Right now, buying back Shell [shares] for us continues to be absolutely the right alternative to go for," Wael Sawan told the Financial Times.

Shell has been persistently linked to a bid for its smaller rival BP as the latter lost more than 30% of its value in the past 12 months, the report said.

Earlier in the day, Shell reported strong first-quarter results surpassing profit expectations and launched a $3.5 billion share buyback.

This marks the 14th consecutive quarter that Shell has maintained a buyback plan of at least $3 billion, versus BP, which cut its buybacks this year to strengthen its balance sheet and win back investor confidence.

Shares of Shell were up 2.3% at 2,492.5 pence by 1156 GMT, while BP was down 0.6%.