BP has put all new offshore wind projects on pause as the oil company’s new Chief Executive seeks to focus more heavily on fossil fuels. The Telegraph has more.
Murray Auchincloss, who became permanent head of the business at the start of the year, has also frozen hiring in the offshore wind division.
The move, which was first reported by Reuters, follows investor discontent over the company’s switch to green energy.
However, it is likely to trigger a backlash from climate campaigners who have waged a years-long campaign to push BP into clean energy.
Mr. Auchincloss is seeking to slow down investments in big budget, low-carbon projects, particularly in offshore wind, that are not expected to generate cash for years.
It suggests he is reversing the policies of Bernard Looney, his disgraced predecessor, who tried to move away from fossil fuels before quitting over inappropriate relationships last autumn.
The shift to greener energy has weighed on BP’s shares as returns from renewables shrank, while profits from oil and gas soared. The global recovery from the pandemic and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine both drove prices to new highs.
Mr. Auchincloss and Chief Financial Officer Kate Thomson have prioritised investing in and even acquiring new oil and gas assets, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. onshore shale basins, where BP already has large operations, company sources briefed on the matter said.
Worth reading in full.
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Reality rears it’s lovely head. The puzzle is why it took so long.
Obviously BP have understood that at some point Nut Zero has to fail and no matter the timescale the company will find itself sitting on some very profitable assets. We can only hope that reality bites early.
I guess BP are operating in a global market and figure that there will be plenty of buyers for hydrocarbons long into the future, and whatever subsidies and incentives they get from Nut Zero governments are not for now enough for them to bother with windmills.
Look on the bright side concerning the Horse Hill ‘Supreme’ Court decision: The oil will still be there later and will probably become more valuable.
Who “owns” the coal under the UK? Under our feet there must be 1,000 years of assets, frozen since the decision to close deep mines around 2000. Is there some shrewd investor or some canny lawyer who during the fire-sale a few decades ago “bought” for a £1 asset (e.g. a mine, or the rights to extract coal) and simply passes it down the generation? If energy prices continue to soar, many mines previously unprofitable or closed down because of politics would suddenly be profitable if they could be re-opened by re-issuing licences. Doubtless a similar situation exists in the US where billionaires presumably bought up defunct mines or “useless” mineral rights and simply hang on, or bequeath them, till the coal becomes “transmuted” into gold when the next generation, immiserated, dark and shivering, repeals Global NetZero and introduces fifth generation clean furnaces.
The Coal Authority https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-coal-authority
So the Coal Authority have the right to grant (for a suitable fee) or refuse a licence to explore for or extract coal, but do not own or utilise the asset themselves. So it’s a modern-day rent seeking operation?
Yes all very sensible if we were living in the real world. But we are living in the NET ZERO world. A world where we have forced ourselves “In Law” to reduce emissions and as far as energy production is concerned coal has the highest CO2 emissions. So only under very remarkable circumstances would coal be considered, although it did happen in Germany after they had made the silly decision to close down all Nuclear. They had to open 14 new coal mines or face blackouts.
But if reducing CO2 emissions is really what this all about then we would be going all out for Nuclear Energy. The fact that many of those climate fundamentalist groups don’t want Nuclear indicates their motives are less to do with climate and more to do with control of wealth and resources and especially fossil fuels which power 85% of the world. Net Zero is simply just anti capitalism with climate as the plausible excuse that large portions of the public accept because they are indoctrinated nearly everyday about a climate crisis on Mainstream News Programs
Some good news!
So will they return to being called British Petroleum instead of Beyond Petroleum? We are soon going to have an extremely eco fascist Labour Government with the likes of Miliband in there seeking to suck up the arses of the UN and WEF and pretend to save the planet harder and faster then every other country, so you can imagine how Miliband and his crew of eco fundamentalists will react to what BP are supposedly doing now.
But what we should really all be scared off is a huge Labour majority which will make them virtual Emperors able to enact every absurdity in the Sustainable Devlopment book, and impoverish us all in line with this UN idea that western lifestyles are “unsustainable”, in other worlds our standard of living is too high. —-Think about that for a second. Your government agrees that your standard of living is too high. This is preposterous. But be in no doubt with this massive majority that Labour are seemingly going to get on the 4th July people are going to see this squirming bunch of eco fascists set about getting rid of everything that makes our lives comfortable all under false pretences of a climate emergency.
And all the while our idiot political class continues to demonise fossil fuels and making investment in this country impossible, leading to ever-increasing imports and the flight of profitable fossil fuel companies.
Bravo BP! Drill baby, drill.
Get your butts down to the Falklands and start building a new Sovereign Wealth Fund from the liquid gold and gas fields discovered there. Before the Argies nick it.
Norway’s wealth fund is approaching $1.5Trillion.
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The insanity of Net Zero.
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