BP has cut its spending on exploration and drilling rights and made a major reduction in the number of employees within its exploration division.

Budgets for exploration and drilling rights have fallen $4.6bn to $800 million over the ten years since the Deepwater Horizon disaster and restructuring, and its exploration team has reduced from 700 to fewer than 100.

As the company attempts to transition itself from oil major to renewable energy producer and distributor, it has also sold off oil wells and operations. CEO Bernard Looney has stated that he wants to see the company become net-zero by 2050 and would cease exploration for oil in countries where it does not have an existing presence.

The revelations come from a report from Reuters, and a former employee told Better Society that the moves are a fundamental shift in philosophy for a firm that has a tradition of exploration.

For all oil companies the oil price crash of 2014 has marked a watershed moment, but BP in particular, already stinging from the Deepwater incident and the more recent pandemic, has seen its share price fall. Looney is betting on the rapid change to renewables as the future, but the current share price would indicate that no all investors are convinced of the strategy.

For now, BP will continue to bank the profits from oil and spend on renewables. A strategy that might well finally fulfil the slogan Beyond Petroleum.

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