{"id":367598,"date":"2025-02-25T15:14:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=367598"},"modified":"2025-02-25T15:14:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:14:58","slug":"bp-in-crisis-the-oil-industrys-biggest-loser-on-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=367598","title":{"rendered":"BP in crisis \u2014 The oil industry\u2019s biggest loser on renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The iconic 120-year-old company shares fall as rumors of a takeover spread<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"BP<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

BP has lost a quarter of its share value in the last two weeks. The fall started when company profits turned out to be just $9 billion, down from $14b a year ago and $28b in 2022. As The Telegraph reports, \u201cBP\u2019s shareholders had realized that the green spending they supported in 2020 had halved their dividends.\u201d But Shell, Chevron, and Exxon \u2014 the other oil giants \u2014 they were all doing much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years ago, BP changed its branding to \u201cBeyond Petroleum\u201d *. By 2020 the company was hellbent on getting there. Suicidally, the oil company pledged to\u00a0reduce their own oil production by 40% by 2030<\/a>, (which did nothing except help all their competitors) and promised to pivot into renewable power. BP set itself a target to increase renewables generation by a factor of twenty this decade.\u00a0 The media gushed\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 \u201cBP Shuns Fossil Fuels<\/a>\u201c, said\u00a0Politico<\/em>. BP supposedly shone a light on\u00a0\u201cstranded oil and gas\u201d!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thus, and verily, in mid 2020, with exquisite timing, BP management leapt headlong in the magical energy pit. They were sure that after the\u00a0pandemic the world would \u2018build back better<\/a>\u2019 with renewables \u201cso their economies would be more resilient\u201d … CEO Bernard Looney<\/a>\u00a0actually said that (probably while reading from the WEF handbook of \u201cWhat to Wear for Billionaires\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, BP flagged a write-down of $18 billion dollars in fossil fuel assets and talked of \u201caccelerating\u201d its green investments. Then everything went wrong. Just after BP bet the house on renewables, the Ukraine war broke out and everyone needed oil and gas, and no one needed another wind farm. There was a bonanza selling fossil fuels as prices lifted off (seen in the BP income in 2022) but suddenly no one could afford to buy real energy to make solar panels and turbines, and no one had much cash left to buy randomly failing generators either. It\u2019s been all downhill in renewables ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to this, BP operated Australia\u2019s largest oil refinery for 66 years in Kwinana, Western Australia until it closed in 2021. Until a few weeks ago,\u00a0BP was planning to launch a $600 million biofuel project on the same site<\/a>, and the Australian government was thinking of tossing $1 billion dollars at a hydrogen project there too.\u00a0 They were supposed to turn cooking oil into av-gas and renewable diesel and be a hub for hydrogen. It\u2019s sadly pathetic and unravelling at warp speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Telegraph has all the sordid details<\/a> as British Petroleum fights for life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BP faces \u2018existential crisis\u2019 after ruinous attempt to go green<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The energy giant has vowed a \u2018fundamental reset\u2019 after its costly foray into net zero<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnathon Leake and Ben Marlow, The Telegraph<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years on from that speech in February 2020, the company is beleaguered by a ruthless activist investor, under pressure to boost its flatlining share price and considering a return to the oil and gas exploration that made it so successful to begin with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abrupt turn follows decades of crisis at one of Britain\u2019s most venerable institutions. Today, its future is more uncertain than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To win round doubters, he is expected to announce a major break with the last five years \u2013 shifting away from net zero and back towards its oil and gas heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pushed by analysts, Auchincloss, Looney\u2019s replacement, confirmed a halt to all investment in wind and solar. \u201cWe have completely decapitalised renewables,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can blame management, who had been on the fruity green path since 1997, and screwed up majorly, but oddly, 88% of BP shareholders also voted in favor of cutting oil and growing renewables which doesn\u2019t make much sense. Not unless the rank-and-file votes were unknowingly cast-by-proxy through their hedge funds and pension accounts.\u00a0 Were 88% of British Petroleum investors really fooled into thinking oil was \u201cbad\u201d \u2014 or was BP quietly undermined by the big banker blob cartel who may have bossed all the pension funds into voting for Hari Kari?\u00a0 Larry Fink, head of BlackRock, pumped up the whole renewables bubble in 2020, and the bankers were known to boss around whole countries with threats of\u00a0high interest rates if they didn\u2019t behave<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hypothetically if the Big Bankers were heavily invested in renewable stocks (which they were), then during a bubble, it would work out well for them if one of the largest oil and gas companies performed a large public flip to renewables. And as a bonus, if BP shareholders were stiffed in the process, the wreckage of a great company could be picked up cheaply a few years later\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, management were crazy, but they probably had help from The Blob Bankers and the Blob Media to really screw things up.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

*Correction: \u201cname\u201d changed to\u201d brand\u201d. Technically BP just \u201crebranded\u201d itself \u201cBeyond Petroleum\u201d. h\/t Robert Swan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo of BP logo on flag by Alf van Beem<\/a>, BP Pin photo: Museum Rotterdam<\/a> and Museum Rotterdam<\/a> and BP Truck Photo.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BP has lost a quarter of its share value in the last two weeks. The fall started when company profits turned out to be just $9 billion, down from $14b a year ago and $28b in 2022. As The Telegraph reports, \u201cBP\u2019s shareholders had realized that the green spending they supported in 2020 had halved their dividends.\u201d But Shell, Chevron, and Exxon \u2014 the other oil giants \u2014 they were all doing much better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":367607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691833545,691821286,691818154,691822372,691818130],"class_list":{"0":"post-367598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-british-petroleum-bp","9":"tag-green-investments","10":"tag-net-zero","11":"tag-oil-production","12":"tag-renewables","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0BP-Logo-History.jpg?fit=1280%2C797&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1xD0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":245118,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=245118","url_meta":{"origin":367598,"position":0},"title":"The \u2018Energy Transition\u2019: Learning and Retreat at BP","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/02\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cPhysical and economic realities must not only be considered but controlling. 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