The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
No guarantee that if Putin left the scene that anything would necessarily change; indeed it could get worse. However, nothing is likely to change whilst he is pulling the strings.
BP may as well hold on. Why? Even if it takes years, surely things will improve eventually when Russia wants to join the rest if the civilised world.
From today's City AM.
Skip t
CityAM
MONDAY 24 APRIL 2023 11:13 AM
BP: Activist investor urges toughening up of climate agenda – as pressure builds on energy giant’s chair
BY:NICHOLAS EARL
Activist investor group ‘Follow This’ has urged shareholders to back proposals to toughen BP’s climate agenda.
The call comes amid intense pressure on its chairman Helge Lund, after the energy giant watered down its emission targets earlier this year.
BP faces the growing prospect its chairman could be ousted by shareholders at a crunch AGM vote this week, with five of the UK’s biggest pension schemes set to vote against Lund’s re-election.
The energy giant has eased its pledges to cut emissions, targeting a 20-30 per cent cut by the end of this decade – compared to a previous plan fora 35-40 per cent reduction over the same time period.
It also plans greater production of oil and gas over the next seven years compared with previous targets.
Hedge Lund
Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This, told City A.M. he hoped the momentum against its chairman could be used to challenge the BP wider energy ambitions.
Follow This has tabled its own proposal – resolution 25 – calling for the company to include scope three emissions in its existing 2030 reductions.
This is to ensure BP’s energy agenda is in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, including the target of limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
He said: “Pre-declarations against the chairman would logically be coupled with a vote in favour of Resolution 25, which requests that BP aligns its targets with the Paris Agreement.
“We suppose that these investors also vote in favour climate resolution 25, the most effective tool to urge BP to drive down emissions by 2030. We hear that investors have concerns about governance as well as overall climate change goals at BP.”
Scope three emissions encompass those not just produced by the company itself, but those it’s indirectly responsible for, up and down its value chain.
This includes its customers, and the emissions they produce when they burn purchased oil for energy consumption.
The issue is contentious among oil and gas companies across the industry, with fossil fuel majors refusing to commit to absolute targets with scope three – arguing they are too difficult to forecast
BP has urged shareholders to vote against resolution 25, considering it “unclear,” “simplistic” and “disruptive,” while encroaching on the board’s accountability to set the company’s strategy.
Major investor advisers ISS and Glass Lewis have also both told BP shareholders to oppose Follow This’ resolution
WeirdPal,
As for Putin, whethre it is a year or five years, eventually he will no longer be in charge. Assuming that Russia does not nationalise Rosneft, BP would eventually get its stake back and take the dividends.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65157555
Price of oil surges 7% or $5 in trading about 01:30.
Bodes well for BP, Shell et al to open up.
Sky News at 15:15.
Several Middle Eastern oil producing countries are cutting back production "voluntarily".
Kuwait to cut back production by 128,000 barrels per day starting in May for the rest of the year.
Oman will cut 40,000 bpd on the same timeliness.
Saudi Arabia will cut by 500,000 body, same timeline.
UAE will cut by 144,000 bpd, same timeliness.
Interesting that this has been done outside of OPEC.
Will this bump io the price of crude or merely provide a floor to stop it falling further?
meoryou: "Well one thing we have learned is that buybacks were not putting a floor under sp ."
Actually, I learnt the exact opposite! How much LOWER would the shares be if BP had not gought and cancelled so many millions of it shares that were in circulation?
Put another way, if BP had bought ALL of its shares bar one, would the Stock Exchange investors' nerves have brought that the value of that one share? Yes, sure, but, logically, less than if there were millions of times that number in circulation. So ANY reduction puts a 'floor' on the price compared to no buybacks.
Sights,
Whilst I should like to see the price of oil go up to as high as possible, at these lower levels, it will help to bring down inflation sharply later this year as it feeds through and drops out of the figures.
Jeffrey,
It is nothing to do with being decrepit (note the correct spelling) or being corrupt. The confidence of the markets was spooked by the unexpected collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, leading investors to wonder if this is a one-off or whether there are other listed companies in dire straits, but that we just do not know yet. So the risk premium of being invested in the market is consequently raised. Perhaps by as early as tomorrow, investors will recover their collective nerves and jump back in attracted by the lower prices and a desire to pick up a bargain!
HappyInvestor100,
I feel that BP is missing a trick here! Perhaps it could still go hard looking for and exploiting new and old gas and oil sites, but that a percentage of the nett profits would be used to invest in green investments. That way, a bit like the Medici in Florence who used the profits from banking to create many public works of art to whitewash the sin of money-lending, BP can maximise current profits and secure its long term viability.