In the midst of soaring wholesale gas and oil prices BP chief executive Bernard Looney described his company last November as “a cash machine at these types of prices”.
He has been proved right. The oil giant he steers recorded its highest quarterly earnings in more than a decade on the back of soaring prices for hydrocarbons.
The bumper figure came despite a loss of earnings from Russia after taking a mammoth writedown on its business in the country.
BP announced days after Russia’s war with Ukraine began that it woulds drop its 20 per cent stake in Russian state oil giant Rosneft.
But war is not all bad news for BP. The demand caused by a boycott of Russia has come on the back of BP’s highest full-year profit in eight years.
Murray Auchincloss, BP’s finance boss, told analysts at the time: “It is possible that we are getting more cash than we know what to do with.”
High wholesale gas prices are the main driver behind a 54 per cent increase in the UK’s energy price cap on April 1 which has pushed household bills up to an average £1,971 per year and left families struggling.
But the BP boss, who grew up on a dairy farm in County Kerry in Ireland and was the first in his family to go to University, insists he understands how many households were “really, really struggling”.
He said that BP’s role was to return cash to shareholders including millions of UK pensioners, pay its taxes and invest in the UK energy system.
Looney’s own pay and perks deal ballooned to nearly £4.5 millon in 2021, compared with £1.7 million he made in 2020.
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