BP Regulatory News (BP.)

Contents

Introduction

BP p.l.c. has prepared the following consolidated report ('Report') on payments to governments in accordance with the Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 (2014/3209), as amended by the Reports on Payments to Governments (Amendment) Regulations 2015 (2015/1928), (the 'Regulations'). The Report also addresses BP p.l.c.'s reporting obligations under DTR 4.3A of the Financial Conduct Authority Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. The 'Basis of Preparation' section below contains information about the content of the Report, the types of payments included and the principles that have been applied in preparing the Report.

bp's socio-economic contribution

bp makes a broader socio-economic contribution to countries in which we operate in addition to the payments that are required to be reported under the Regulations. We also make payments to governments in connection with parts of our business other than the P&O and G&LC activities - for example in relation to the transporting, trading, manufacturing and marketing of oil and gas. As well as government payments, bp contributes to the economies of the countries in which we operate by providing jobs for employees and contractors, purchasing materials from local suppliers and undertaking social investment activities. See Other Resources section at the end of the report for more information on our socio-economic contribution and our position on tax and financial transparency.

bp's position on revenue transparency

bp support transparency in the flow of revenue from oil and gas activities to governments. This helps citizens hold public authorities to account for the way they use funds received through taxes and other agreements

Basis of preparation

Under the Regulations, the directors of BP p.l.c. are required to prepare a consolidated report on payments made to governments for each financial year in relation to relevant activities of both BP p.l.c. and any of its subsidiary undertakings included in the consolidated group accounts. The term 'bp' is used interchangeably within this report to indicate BP p.l.c. or any subsidiary undertaking within the scope of the Report.

Activities within the scope of the Report

Payments made to governments that relate to bp's activities involving the exploration, prospection, discovery, development, and extraction of minerals, oil, natural gas deposits or other materials ('extractive activities') are included in this Report.

Payments made to governments that relate to trading, export (pipelines), refining and processing activities are not included in this Report as they are not within the scope of extractive activities as defined by the Regulations.

Where a payment relates to activities that are reportable under the Regulations as well as to activities which are not reportable, bp reports the payment in its entirety if it is not possible to disaggregate it.

Government

Under the Regulations, a 'government' is defined as any national, regional or local authority of a country, and includes a department, agency or undertaking that is a subsidiary undertaking controlled by such an authority. In some countries, certain local indigenous organizations fall within this definition of government. Where this is the case payments made to such organizations have been included in this Report. Where a state owned enterprise undertakes activities outside of its home jurisdiction, then it is not considered to be a government.

Cash basis

Payments are reported on a cash basis, meaning that they are reported in the period in which they are paid, as opposed to being reported on an accruals basis (which would mean that they were reported in the period for which the liabilities arise). Refunds are also reported in the period they are received by bp and are shown as negative amounts in the Report. Where payments in kind are made to a government they are valued and footnotes are included to help explain the valuation method and any related volumes.

Reporting principles

The Regulations require payments to be reported where they are made to governments by BP p.l.c. and its subsidiary undertakings in respect of extractive activities. In preparing a report, the Regulations also require the disclosure of payments to reflect the substance of each payment and the relevant activity or project concerned. In light of these requirements bp has assessed its reporting obligations to be as follows:

· Where bp has made a payment to a government, such payment is reported in full, whether made in bp's sole capacity or in bp's capacity as the operator of a joint venture. Payments made to governments in connection with joint ventures are included in the Report if and to the extent that bp makes the relevant payment. Typically such circumstances will arise where bp is the operator of the joint venture.

· Payments made by an incorporated joint venture which is not a subsidiary of bp are not included within this Report.

· In some instances, bp is a partner in unincorporated joint ventures where the role of operator is performed through a non-typical operatorship model whereby multiple entities contribute to an unincorporated body which has the role of operator. In relation to such joint ventures, payments actually made by bp to the government are reported and payments for which bp has direct responsibility to the government, but which are paid on its behalf, are also reported.

· bp's equity-accounted investments such as Rosneft, Pan American Energy Group and Aker bp are not bp subsidiaries and therefore in accordance with the Regulations, payments made by such entities are not included in this Report.

Project definition

The Regulations require payments to be reported by project (as a sub category within a country). They define a 'project' as the operational activities which are governed by a single contract, licence, lease, concession or similar legal agreement, and form the basis for payment liabilities with a government. If these agreements are substantially interconnected, then they can be treated as a single project. Under the Regulations 'substantially interconnected' means forming a set of operationally and geographically integrated contracts, licences, leases or concessions or related agreements with substantially similar terms that are signed with a government, giving rise to payment liabilities. These agreements may themselves be governed by a single contract, joint venture, production-sharing agreement, or other overarching legal agreement. Factors used to determine whether contracts or licences are operationally and geographically integrated may include their common management framework, proximity and use of common infrastructure. The number of projects will depend on the contractual arrangements within a country and not necessarily on the scale of activities. Moreover, a project will only appear in this report where relevant payments occurred during the year in relation to that project.

The Regulations acknowledge that for some payments it may not be possible to attribute a payment to a single project and therefore such payments may be reported at the country level. Corporate income taxes, which are typically not levied at a project level, are an example of this.

Materiality threshold

The Regulations require that payments made as a single payment exceeding £86,000 or as part of a series of related payments within a financial year exceeding £86,000 be included in this Report.

Reporting currency

All payments have been reported in US dollars. Payments made in currencies other than US dollars are typically translated at the exchange rate at the date of payment.

Payment types

The Regulations define a "Payment" as an amount paid whether in money or in kind, for relevant activities where the payment is of any one of the types listed below:

Production entitlements 

Under production-sharing agreements (PSAs) the production is shared between the host government and the other parties to the PSA. The host government typically receives its share or entitlement in kind rather than being paid in cash. In this Report such production entitlements volumes to the government are reported on a lifting basis i.e. when the government takes possession of its share of production. A market value is applied, usually using the valuation method from the relevant PSA. For joint ventures in which bp is the operator, government production entitlements are reported in their entirety, in accordance with the notes above. Where the national oil company (NOC) is also a partner in the joint venture, their production entitlement is reported in addition to the government share of production. The NOC's entitlement as a partner will include both their share of production as investor's return as well as their entitlement for the reimbursement of their costs.

Taxes

The Report includes taxes levied on income, production or profits or withheld from dividends, royalties and interest received by bp. In addition, taxes paid on behalf of bp by the NOC out of production entitlements are reported. Taxes levied on consumption, personnel, sales, procurement (contractor's withholding taxes), environmental, property, customs and excise are not reportable under the Regulations.

Royalties

These may be paid in cash or in kind (valued in the same way as production entitlement).

Fees

In preparing this Report bp has included licence fees, rental fees, entry fees and all other payments that are paid in consideration for new and existing licences and/or concessions. Fees paid to governments for administrative services are excluded.

Bonuses

Signature, discovery and production bonuses and other bonuses payable under licences or concession agreements are included in the Report.

Infrastructure improvements

Such payments include a road or a building provided by bp that forms part of the fundamental facilities and systems serving a community or area. These payments are included in the Report whether or not bp is contractually obliged to fund them, and are reported when the relevant assets are handed over to the government or the local community.

Dividends

These are dividends that are paid in lieu of production entitlements or royalties. Dividends paid by bp to a government as an ordinary shareholder are excluded. For the year ended 31 December 2020, there were no reportable dividend payments to a government.

Other considerations

The payments shown in this report are rounded to the nearest $0.1 million. In the following tables because of rounding, some totals may not agree exactly with the sum of their component parts. Amounts are shown to the nearest dollar in the data submitted and available on the UK Companies House website.

Payments overview

The table below shows the relevant payments to governments made by bp in the year ended 31 December 2020 shown by country and payment type.

Of the seven payment types required by the UK regulations, bp did not pay any relevant dividends and therefore the category is not shown.

$ million

Payments by country

Algeria

$ million

Angola

$ million

Argentina

$ million

Australia

$ million

Azerbaijan

$ million

Brazil

$ million

Canada

$ million

Egypt

$ million

Gambia

$ million

Indonesia

$ million

Iraq

$ million

Mauritania

$ million

Mexico

$ million

Oman

$ million

Russia

$ million

São Tomé and Príncipe

$ million

Senegal

$ million

Trinidad and Tobago

$ million

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

$ million