BP PLC (LON:BP) continues to scale down its exploration operations, according to a Reuters report, with headcount down substantially since Bernard Looney took the reigns just under a year ago.
There are now fewer than 100 geologists, engineers and scientists working in BP’s exploration team, Reuters highlighted, down from around 700 team members a number of years ago.
Staff have either switched over to work on newer ‘low carbon’ projects and divisions or have been laid off, the report said.
Looney - who was himself promoted out of the upstream division which is responsible for oil exploration and production – has been steering the group into an ambitious and radical repositioning.
In August, BP laid out a reimagining of its business as an integrated energy company with the hydrocarbons business cut by around 40% over the next ten years. It also came with a pledge to reduce its emissions by 30 to 35%.
Looney unveiled a US$5bn per year investment plan, targeting a 20-fold increase in renewable energy capacity along with goals to capture a piece of the emerging hydrogen and bioenergy markets.
Evidently, against the backdrop of the pandemic, this transition may be gathering pace – or at the very least the ‘old’ approach of looking for, finding and developing new oil fields is likely waning.