n Tuesday, oil and gas giant BP announced plans to slow its transition away from oil. The move sparked outrage from climate activists, but it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Two and a half years ago, after BP announced perhaps the most aggressive plans of any major oil and gas company yet to move away from fossil fuels, I asked Bernard Looney, the company’s CEO, about the reality that his commitment did not move fast enough to match the urgent science of climate change.
Looney told me that his vision was actually about generating more profit. “This isn’t some form of altruism or some form of charity… This is about creating sustainable value,” he said. “We can create value for our shareholders through this shift, and we would argue that we will create more value through this shift than we would if we keep doing what we’re doing.”
It was a telling exchange that foreshadowed his move this week to backtrack on some of his company’s most ambitious climate commitments. In 2020, oil prices had plummeted and it remained unclear when they would recover. An aggressive approach to the energy transition offered the opportunity to turn a big profit. In today’s environment, with oil prices high and projected to remain high, rapidly shifting away from oil production leaves money on the table.
BP CEO Bernard Looney speaks during an event in London on Feb. 12, 2020, where he declared the company's intentions to achieve “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050.that BP’s new goal is to cut oil and gas production at least 20% by 2030 from 2019 levels. In 2020, the company had said it would aim to cut production by at least 35% in that same timeframe.
With BP operations of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform reeking havoc in the Gulf of Mexico. This decision should come as no surprise in its irresponsibility to climate change.
I’ll be surprised if the fluid in the can she is using isn’t oil based.