ALEX BRUMMER: Oil price headache for BP
Daily Mail As BP contemplates the future without Bernard Looney, the cash machine which the former BP boss referred to last year is ramping up again.
Saudi Arabian oil exports plummeted to their lowest level for two years in July as ruler Mohammed Bin Salman, in concert with Moscow, sought to prevent oil prices subsiding by cutting production.
The squeeze on oil importing nations is working. The benchmark price for Brent crude has jumped to around $95-per-barrel and prices are rising at the fastest pace since Putin invaded Ukraine.
With prices at elevated levels, oil majors are in for another profits bonanza.
The change in market conditions is likely to be a big factor as BPs chairman Helge Lund, and a divided and ineffectual board, search for a new chief executive.
When the oil price was last at present levels, Looney found himself under pressure to cut back on his green ambitions and improve payouts to shareholders.
The lowering of BPs ambitious carbon reduction targets, from 35 per cent-40 per cent by 2050 to 20 per cent-30 per cent, angered the green lobby and Labours Ed Miliband, but didnt go far enough to assuage disgruntled investors.
