Oil major BP says it has slashed planned investment in renewable energy and would increase annual oil and gas spending to $10bn.
Under Auchincloss’s predecessor, Bernard Looney, BP pledged in 2020 to cut oil and gas output by 40 percent while rapidly growing renewables by 2030. It lowered that target to 25 percent in 2023.
The British company cut planned annual investment in energy transition businesses by more than $5bn from its previous forecast, to between $1.5bn and $2bn per year.
It now aims to grow oil and gas production to between 2.3 million and 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2030. It pumped 2.36 million boepd in 2024.
Auchincloss said the transition to renewable energy has been slower than BP initially expected following the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, volatile energy markets and changing attitudes towards renewable energy in some countries.
“What that meant is hydrocarbon demand continues to be very, very strong, stronger than we would have envisioned five years ago, and the transition has not proceeded at the pace we would have thought,” he said.
The CEO told investors following the release of the update that the company’s faith in the green energy transition was “misplaced” and that the company went “too far, too fast” in recent years.
Demand for oil and gas, he added, will be “needed for decades to come”.
British rival Shell and other oil majors have also cut back on clean energy objectives.