The short answer is: Zero. If anything, the company has the opposite problem of not having enough oil assets. This is the result of a misguided move into renewable energy where the company misjudged the speed of the energy transition and paid a substantial price for this well-intended but fundamentally flawed diversification strategy. Here’s the story.

London. UK-04.02.2022. The signage , logo and trademark of the company British Petroleum by one of its many petrol forecourts. (Photo: iStock)

In 2020 under its new CEO Bernard Looney, the company announced a strategy to be net zero by 2050 through 2030 targets of cutting oil and gas production by 40%, growing its low-carbon energy investments to $5 billion per year, increasing its renewable generating capacity from 21.5GW in 2019 to 50GW, and reducing oil and gas production from 2.6 million barrels of oil per day (mmboed) to 1.5 million by 2030.

Since then the company has dramatically underperformed its Western oil and gas major peers. The company’s share price has been flat in the last five years, going from $31.29 on February 28, 2020, to $33.12 on February 27, 2025, for a market cap of $88.08 billion. In contrast, during that same period of time, ExxonMobil’s shares have risen from $51.44 to $110.15 for a market cap of $484.12 billion; Shell’s have risen from $44.03 to $67.27 for a market cap of $203.59 billion. In light of BP’s poor performance the activist hedge fund Elliott Management saw opportunity and over the past few weeks has acquired nearly five percent of the company’s shares. Although rather tight-lipped as activist hedge funds are want to be, they appeared to be pushing for more investment in oil and gas, less investment in renewables, cutting costs, and scaling back on its net-zero emissions ambitions.

BP’s New Strategy

CEO of BP Murray Auchincloss speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas, on March 19, 2024. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)

There was great anticipation about the company’s shareholder meeting on February 26, 2025 since the company was facing what The Telegraph declared was an “existential crisis” since “The British energy giant faces humiliation as the oil industry’s biggest loser on net zero.” In a press release about the meeting BP CEO Murray Auchincloss is quoted as saying “Today we have fundamentally reset bp’s strategy. We are reducing and reallocating capital expenditure to our highest-returning businesses to drive growth, and relentlessly pursuing performance improvements and cost efficiency.” The company announced:

• An increase in oil and gas investments to ~$10 billion per year
• 10 new major projects to start by 2027 and another 8-10 by 2030
• Growing its production capacity to 2.3-2.5 mmboed by 2030 (BP lost substantial production when on February 27, 2022 it sold its 19.75% holding in the Russian national oil company Rosneft following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.)
• Reshaping its downstream portfolio to grow revenues, operating profit, and cash flow
• Selective investments of $1.5-2.0 billion per year in “transition businesses” like biogas, biofuels and EV charging, more than $5 billion per year lower than previous guidance

Relatively little is said about sustainability although the company notes “bp is now focusing its sustainability aims on those most relevant to the long-term success of its businesses and to its net zero ambition.” There is no mention of a net-zero by 2050 target. As Lindsey Stewart, director of stewardship research at Morningstar told Responsible Investor, “having already cut back its energy transition targets in 2023, BP’s subsequent underperformance compared with peers has created pressure for BP management to focus on sustainability of a financial rather than ecological nature.”

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