Less Oil, No Carbon, Few Answers: BP CEO’s Hazy Vision of Future
- Looney said he doesn’t have detailed near-term targets
- BP’s oil and gas production will decline as strategy shifts
BP Plc’s new boss set out the oil industry’s boldest plan to tackle climate change. All that’s missing is the map for how to get there.
Bernard Looney, who has been chief executive officer for just a week, committed BP to eliminating all emissions from its own operations and production by 2050. That’s a radical shift for one of the world’s largest and oldest oil companies, and he gave a blunt admission that he didn’t know how to achieve it.
“Every journey has to begin with a destination,” Looney said as he presented his new strategy in London on Wednesday. “I appreciate you want more than a vision -- you want to see milestones, near-term targets, some ways to measure progress. We do not have those for you right now.”
One thing was clear from Looney’s plan -- and it’s a big deal for a company that tapped the first fields in Iran in the early 20th century and drilled wildcat wells on the Alaskan frontier more than 60 years ago.