"There is no more upstream and downstream" declared new BP boss Bernard Looney in an interview with IHS Markit last month, as part of the online series of CERAWeek conversations. Talking about the restructuring of the company to match new priorities, he said: "What we had was two very large segments and they were colossal segments inside the company, and they sort of dominated - you're either an 'upstreamer' or a 'downstreamer.' At some stage we felt that, actually, what we don't want are two big segments; we want one segment and that one segment is called BP." He describes recent attempts to transform the oil and gas major into a "lighter, more agile, more focused organisation." The business of meeting carbon goals (BP aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050), providing fossil fuels in a post-COVID world and simultaneously satisfying shareholders must be a tricky one; Looney uses buzzwords such as agility, centralisation, diversification and digitalisation, which collectively seem to mean streamlining the different parts of the business and working with - rather than against - the tide of lower oil prices, reduced oil demand and the slow process of decarbonisation.
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