BP plc’s ambitious reinvention, to move from fossil fuels toward carbon-free resources, was launched only days before the world began to shut down last year, but instead of shelving the plans, the company doubled down on the energy transition, CEO Bernard Looney said Monday on the opening day of CERAWeek by IHS Markit.
The weeklong conference, featuring a Who’s Who of the global energy industry, is being held virtually, helmed by IHS Markit Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin. Yergin, as he has done every year at CERAWeek, is serving as moderator on some panels, including one Monday morning featuring Looney and Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Andrew Jassy.
BP’s transition to move beyond petroleum by 2050 or sooner was launched about a year ago, shortly after Looney took the helm and shortly before the global pandemic lockdowns began. The roadmap to net-zero carbon was unveiled last September.
The pullback in energy demand was devastating, but BP was undeterred, Looney told Yergin. It’s what customers want, he said.
“Instead of putting reinvention on hold, we sort of doubled down,” the BP chief said. With the organization leaner, “we are better positioned today than we otherwise would have been. As the vaccines roll out..the pandemic recedes, and the economy rebounds, we will be poised for takeoff, so to speak.”
Reinvention Intention
The reality, he noted, is that BP has been an oil and gas company for 112 years.
“This is a moment where we do have to reinvent the company, but we would like that to be a continual change process because the world continues to move so, so quickly. The reasons are clear. The world has a finite carbon budget. It’s burning out.”
Second, society and BP employees “want us to change. They need us to change. They want different things.” In addition, “we can’t go against the grain of society…”