BP’s best bet for avoiding a windfall tax might be to hide Bernard Looney on an offshore oil platform for a few months. Every time the chief executive ventures on to tax and investment territory, he inflames the politics around the windfall debate.
Looney’s memorable remark last November – one he must regret – was the boast about BP being “a cash machine at these types of prices”. Oil prices at the time were $85 a barrel, so the extra profits at $105 were bound to invite scrutiny when they flow, in the most part, from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
