Bernard Looney Hailed As Charismatic Oilman, To Lead BP’s Responsibility Of Climate Crisis

BP Plc (LON: BP.) is eyeing at the charismatic oil leader who can take responsibility for the environmental crisis. Mr Bernard Looney will be taking the position of new chief executive next month i.e. in February 2020 at BP, indicating this forty-nine-year-old leader from Ireland has been welcomed as the charismatic visionary for the industry of gas & oil. This news came when the public hue and cry is growing every day to prevent a climate collapse by phasing out fossil fuels. For this, Bernard Looney launched an Instagram account for promoting a sincere discussion regarding energy transition.

In the year 2010, Bob Dudley steered the company back from the brink of severe crisis because of salary pay-outs pressure on the business. Now, after almost ten years, Dudley’s replacement will have to pass through an international level climate crisis. Scores of people have put their trust in Bernard Looney that he could be BP’s best choice of surviving international move from fossils fuels. As per some media report, Bernard Looney was the one pegged as the prime candidate in the race to take the position from Bob Dudley.

In the year 2010, when Bob Dudley took the responsibility, he supported Bernard Looney to join the senior management team at BP. After that Bernard Looney became the international boss of “upstream” gas and oil production where he oversaw reigniting the company’s expansion of fossil fuel. Under the mentorship of Bernard Looney, the company delivered around 2.6 million barrels of gas and oil each day. His leadership saved the investment of multibillion-dollar that will flow additional barrels in million into the international market in the coming years.

As per media reports, Mark Van Baal has said that a career engaged in oil reserves can create difficulty for Bernard Looney to “think of future without gas and oil” or look at renewables “as a business opportunity, not a chore”. However, the chief executive of BP’s solar joint venture Lightsource, Nick Boyle, stated that he has no doubt about the company’s vision to create renewable energy. He further stated that “Bernard Looney was truly attentive about challenges and what the company management felt the future opportunity about the solar. The company knows that solar is ready to perform an ever-increasing part in the energy mix from the energy projections available, and part of BP.”

According to the media report, the company’s plan is to expand BP’s carbon dioxide objectives far from the carbon emission which the company creates within its business operations that also include the pollutions from the product it sells to consumers. However, many oil companies can do many things to reduce carbon emission, such as the burning of “waste” gas from oilfields and cutting methane leaks from rigs and stopping “flaring”.

Bernard Looney, after being named as new BP’s boss stated that “We need to listen to society’s worries for the climate crisis. However, being noisier regarding good things is not a good strategy. We need to show that the company is the part of the solution of what they perceive it.” Bernard Looney has been said to be the charismatic moderniser of the oil industry and is tipped to steer away the company from the climate crisis

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BP Plc

BP Plc (LON: BP.) is a gas and oil company. The company provide light, heat & mobility services and products to communities in the entire world so that the company will support to shift to a less carbon future. The company has a diverse portfolio of businesses spread across geography and resources types. The company has well-established trading capabilities to reduce the effect of pricing cycles for commodity.

On 24th January 2020, the company purchased 6.7 million shares of $0.25 each on London stock exchange which was the part of repurchase programme declared on 15th November 2017. The volume-weighted average price paid per share reported to 486.85 pence on the same date.

On 21st January 2020, the company announced that the chief financial officer (“CFO”), Brian Gilvary will be stepping down from the company’s Board and would retire on 30th June 2020. His position will be taken over by CFO of BP's Upstream segment, Murray Auchincloss.

On 9^th December 2019, the company announced that the interim dividend for the third quarter 2019 would be of US$0.1025 per ordinary share (US$0.615 per ADS) which was declared on 29^th October 2019. On 20^th December 2019, the dividend had been paid to investors who were registered on 8th November 2019. The company had further stated that the dividend is to be paid in cash in sterling currency to shareholders of ordinary shares and in US dollars to holders of ADSs.

At the time of writing, on 27th January 2020 as at 09:21 AM (GMT), the share price of BP. was trading at GBX 476.95 per share on the London Stock Exchange, a downside of 1.88 per cent or GBX 9.15 per share, versus previous day’s closing price of GBX 486.10 per share.

The company’s market capitalisation was reported at £ 98,592.27 million at the time of writing. The free float and shares outstanding of BP were reported at 20.12 billion and 20.27 billion, respectively.

BP.’s share price of GBX 583.41 as on 23^rd April 2019 was its 1-year peak price, whereas the share price of GBX 461.15 as on 13^th December 2019 was the 1-year low share price. The current share price was lower by 18.24 per cent from the 1-year high price, whereas it was higher by 3.42 per cent from the 1-year low price.

The beta of the stock of the company has been reported at a value of 1.4, which means that BP. stock has shown high volatility in its movement, as compared to the volatility of the comparative index in the last twelve months.