Green groups have reacted with fury to reports that BP has dropped a target to cut its oil output in the next five years, saying the company was prioritising profits over the health of the planet.
Campaign groups including Greenpeace and Reclaim Finance slammed the move that would potentially result in the oil company scrapping its plan to reduce oil and gas output by 25% by 2030 under a strategy reset by the company.
The move, reported by Reuters, would be further evidence of the chief executive Murray Auchincloss’s plan to scale back some of the company’s green aims in an attempt to gain investor confidence and grow returns, through its more profitable oil and gas operations.
The company is also targeting several new investments in the Middle East and the Gulf of Mexico to boost output, the news agency said.
BP and rival Shell were among the top risers on the FTSE 100 on Monday, as the price of oil rose above the $80-a-barrel mark for the first time since August. Brent crude was up about 3.5% at $80.85 a barrel.
A BP spokesperson said: “As Murray said at the start of the year in our fourth-quarter results, the direction is the same – but we are going to deliver as a simpler, more focused, and higher value company.”
Responding to the reports, Philip Evans, the Greenpeace UK senior climate campaigner, said the move was further proof that the future of the planet could not be left in the hands of fossil fuel bosses.
“It’s clear that Auchincloss is hell-bent on prioritising company profits and shareholder wealth above all else as extreme floods and wildfires rack up billions of dollars in damages, destroying homes and lives all over the world,” Evans said.
The Reclaim Finance stewardship campaigner Agathe Masson said BP was “throwing any pretence of climate action out of the window in pursuit of increased production” and urged investors to vote against directors at the next annual shareholder meeting.
She said: “BP might be happy to see the planet burn in the name of profits, but investors must take a longer view and reject this climate-wrecking strategy.”
The latest move would be a further step back by BP from its previously more ambitious green targets after it pledged under the former chief executive Bernard Looney in 2020 to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030, and rapidly grow investment in renewables.
This was scaled back to 25% in February 2023 under Looney, meaning that its oil and gas production would be about 2m barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2030. That announcement came as the company posted record profits of $28bn in 2022.
Looney left in September last year after admitting he failed to fully disclose a series of personal relationships with his colleagues to the board.
He was replaced permanently by the former finance chief Auchincloss in January, who has pivoted away from the renewables focus and back towards oil and gas.
BP spent $2.5bn (£1.9bn) on renewables, hydrogen, EV charging and biofuels in 2023. It has also invested in 6GW of offshore wind in the UK and has also received backing from the government for its £4bn carbon capture scheme in on Teesside.
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However, in recent months it has scaled back its investment in renewables, including halting all new offshore wind projects in June to placate investors unhappy with the company’s green targets.
It has also signed investment deals for three new oil projects in Iraq recently, as well as the development of Kaskida and Tiber oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico.
Auchincloss is expected to reveal the full details of his strategy, including the removal of the target, in February, but sources have told Reuters that this had already been scrapped. The company continues to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
James Alexander, the chief executive of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association said: “Most oil and gas majors have consistently failed to invest enough into transition technologies, setting targets and making claims that have often been abandoned or debunked.
“The transition will not wait for them. The gap they have left is already being filled by renewables companies.”
On Monday BP’s rival Shell said that refining profit margins had dropped by almost a third in the three months to the end of September, blaming slowing global demand for the fall.
It said that indicative refining margins dropped to $5.5 a barrel in quarter three from $7.7 a barrel in the previous period.