(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, 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%.

(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)