- BP stock climbed on Tuesday after the company announced record profits and more spending on oil and gas.
- Shares climbed as much as 7% by midday.
- The move is a marked reversal from previous pledges of investments in renewables.
BP stock edged higher on Tuesday, after the company announced record profits and more spending on oil and gas production.
Shares climbed as much as 7%, trading around $37.15 at press time. The company notched record profits for the fourth quarter of 2022, and is shifting away from renewables goals to further capitalize on highly profitable oil and gas investments.
Under chief executive Bernard Looney, BP has embarked one on one of the most ambitious plans to shift toward renewable energy sources and away from fossil fuels the oil industry has seen.
But BP has significantly lowered that target in light of the immense profitability from oil and gas, and downshifted to a 25% goal for the same time period. The Wall Street Journal first reported Looney’s plans to slow renewable spending last week. BP could now spend as much as an additional $16 billion on both oil and gas production, as well as so-called transition-growth engines.
Looney defended the move, and noted the ongoing uncertainty in energy markets due to the war in Ukraine that upended the oil and gas trade in 2022. Looney added that an uptick in fossil fuel consumption is necessary to achieve the longer-term goal of transitioning to carbon neutral sources of energy.
