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Climate targets
LONDON (Reuters) – The next president of British oil company BP, Bernard Looney, plans to expand the company’s climate goals and is considering a restructuring of the company in what would be one of the most radical changes in the group’s 111-year history.
The 49-year-old Irishman who will take over BP in February, replacing Bob Dudley, has plans to adopt broader targets for reducing carbon emissions, which are likely to include emissions from burning fuels and products sold to consumers, in Instead of taking into account only emissions from the company’s own operations, four sources said.
The aim is to reach and if possible overcome efforts by rivals like Royal Dutch Shell and Repsol, as investor pressures related to climate change increase, said the sources, who are aware of internal discussions with the new president.
Stricter climate goals could lead BP to sell its more carbon-intensive businesses, such as oil and gas fields in Angola and Canada, the sources added.
As part of the effort to combat climate change, Looney has also aimed at a broad reorganization of the company to cut costs, and one of the ideas being explored would be the merger of parts of the oil and gas production division with refining and petrochemical operations. , said five sources.
The new chief executive and a team of close advisers have had an intense series of meetings behind closed doors in recent weeks to design the new strategy, according to three of the sources.
Looney’s ambitions for the company are due to be presented to the public in a speech on February 12, a week after taking office. It is not yet clear whether Looney has already decided to adopt any structural changes at the moment.
A BP spokesman declined to comment.
Any new strategy, however, will require balance and will not be risk-free for the company, which led efforts in the early 2000s to build a large renewable energy business, under the name Beyond Petroleum, which later big losses.
