BP Is Making Too Much Money to Stop Drilling for Oil

BP made record-breaking profits in 2022. Photo: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg (Getty Images)

It’s pretty well-known that we need to take some serious steps to cut our carbon emissions if we want any hope of stopping the world from turning into an uninhabitable fireball. One of the biggest contributors to global emissions is the oil and gas industry, which previously set out targets to cut production in an attempt to curb climate change. But now, British oil company BP says it’s making way too much money from oil and gas sales, so has backtracked on its own targets.

According to Reuters, the British energy company raked in a whopping $28 billion in 2022, following similar sky-high profits for other oil companies such as Shell and Exxon. Profits for such companies have been skyrocketing over the past year while people around the world faced a cost of living crisis that saw many have to choose between paying for food or heating.

But the problems of normal people don’t seem to concern energy bosses. It’s maybe for that reason that the company is backtracking on its own emission targets, which could have helped make the world a nice place for me and you.

Instead of pledging to cut spending on oil and gas, and reducing its emissions by as much as 40 percent before the end of the decade, BP will plow more money into its oil and gas business.

BP says more of this, please. Photo: Kristian Buus/In Pictures (Getty Images)

G/O Media may get a commission

Reuters reports that BP has “scaled back plans to cut oil output.” Instead of cutting output by 40 percent, as it promised to do just three years ago, the oil giant will cut production by just 25 percent to 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030. According to Reuters:

“As a result, BP reduced its ambitions to cut emissions from fuels sold to customers to 20-30% by 2030, from 35-40%. BP still aims to reduce its total emissions to net zero by 2050.”

Despite cutting its targets to the end of the decade, BP remains adamant that it will meet its aim of being net-zero by 2050. To do this, Reuters explains that BP will “divide its spending to 2030” equally between its “energy transition businesses” as well as oil and gas extraction.

As such, each will get $18 billion of investment over the next seven years. For its energy transition businesses, this will be spent on renewables and electric vehicle charging. The firm will also use its solar industries to generate biofuels and low-carbon hydrogen.

BP’s oil and gas business will continue working away to warm the Earth. To do this, it will target nine regions for further oil and gas extraction, including the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico, a region that has worked out so well for the company in the past.

Over the coming decade, BP also estimated that the cost of crude oil will rise by $10 up to $70 a barrel.