Exclusive / BP not eyeing return to renewables - Semafor

BP isn’t likely to reverse its pivot away from renewable power generation anytime soon, CEO Meg O’Neill told Semafor. Since she took the helm in April, O’Neill has been focused on salvaging the company’s finances. She got a big helping hand in the third quarter as its profits nearly quadrupled thanks to high oil and gas prices and a busy trading desk, which O’Neill channeled into cutting debt by nearly 40%.

She is also carrying forward the spinoff of BP’s renewable energy businesses that started under her predecessor, although it hasn’t always been easy: Lightsource BP, the company’s utility-scale solar arm, has been on the market for months. Lightsource “is a very big and complex business, but we’re making headway on that,” she said on the sidelines of ADIPEC. “In terms of investing in low-carbon [energy], we need to do that only when we can generate shareholder returns,” she said, citing green hydrogen projects in Europe as an example.

But renewable power isn’t a good match for BP’s skill set, she cautioned: “There are people who can do utility-scale solar and make money at it. We’re happy to let people who are experts in that do their thing, and we will stay focused on oil and gas.”