BP: Oil company will make more profit in 2022 than ever before

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BP logo: benefited from the oil and gas crisis

Photo: PHIL NOBLE / REUTERS

Thanks to the high prices for gas and oil, the British oil company BP more than doubled its operating profit last year and earned the equivalent of 25.9 billion euros - more than ever.

At the same time, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine resulted in a loss: BP wrote off its almost 20 percent stake in the Russian oil giant Rosneft, which cost the company $24 billion.

This is the main reason why the balance sheet for 2022 shows a minus of 2.5 billion dollars.

When presenting its annual balance sheet, BP also announced that it would increase its investments in renewable energies, but also in the production of oil and gas.

By 2030, BP plans to spend $14 to $18 billion annually on this.

BP has softened the previously declared goal of reducing the production of fossil fuels by 40 percent by 2030 compared to 2019 – from now on it should only be 25 percent less.

Strong criticism from Greenpeace

The environmental organization Friends of the Earth reacted with horror.

"It's clear that heating our homes will continue to cost the earth dearly." Greenpeace said BP had caved under pressure from investors and governments to make more "dirty money" from oil and gas.

BP announced a 10 percent increase in dividends and a share buyback program, which should increase the value of the stock.

For 2022, BP is paying out more than $14 billion to its shareholders.

The organization Global Justice Now criticized that more than half of the profits go to "super-rich shareholders" while millions of people do not know how to heat their homes in view of the high prices.

The British government introduced an excess profits tax last year and increased it at the end of the year – to 35 percent.

BP said the tax cost the company $1.8 billion last year.

Previously, Shell had also reported a record profit.

The same applies to ExxonMobil and Chevron.

The reason is the same everywhere: the relatively low global supply of fossil fuels at the height of the energy crisis drove up their prices (read more here).

bam/AFP