British Petroleum Plc. - BP. - GB0007980591

[nobody]

Houston-based Archaea Energy Inc. (NYSE: LFG) is a step closer to being acquired by BP PLC (NYSE: BP).

Shareholders for the renewable natural gas company voted to approve the multibillion-dollar deal with BP during a special shareholders meeting on Dec. 13, Archaea said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Archaea said the vote to approve the merger satisfies one of the conditions to close the deal, which remains subject to other customary closing conditions, including obtaining certain regulatory approvals. BP aims to close the deal by the end of this year.

BP's acquisition of Archaea, first unveiled in October, is valued at approximately $4.1 billion, including around $800 million in net debt. BP has agreed to pay $26 in cash for each Archaea Class A and Class B share, an approximately 38% premium from Archaea's average share price from when the deal was announced.

Archaea is one of the largest producers of renewable natural gas, or RNG, in the U.S. The company's RNG platform produces biogas from organic waste materials from landfills and anaerobic digesters, which can be used in transportation fuel and to produce lower-carbon electricity.

With its $4.1 billion acquisition of Archaea, BP aims to cement biogas as a core pillar of its bioenergy business — one of the London-based oil and gas major's five transition growth segments. BP expects the Archaea deal to double its biogas earnings to about $2 billion by 2030. After the deal closes, Archaea will act as a subsidiary within BP.

BP's deal with Archaea is also one of the year's largest acquisitions of pure-play renewables companies by oil and gas majors. California-based Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) completed a $3.15 billion acquisition of Ames, Iowa-based Renewable Energy Group in June to bolster production of renewable fuels, including biodiesel. London-based Shell PLC (NYSE: SHEL) inked a $2 billion deal in November to acquire Danish company Nature Energy Biogas A/S, the largest RNG producer in Europe. Chevron, Shell and BP all have major offices in Houston.

Archaea Energy went public in September 2021 through a combination with Pittsburgh-based blank-check company Rice Acquisition Corp. and Aria Energy LLC in deals worth more than $1 billion. Around the same time, Archaea moved its headquarters to Houston.

Rice Acquisition Corp. was led by CEO Daniel Rice IV, who currently serves as chairman of the board for Archaea. Rice is also a director behind a second blank-check comapny, Rice Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: RONI), which on Dec. 14 announced plans to acquire North Carolina-based gas company Net Power in a $1.4 billion deal.

Net Power is backed by Houston companies Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) and Baker Hughes Co. (Nasdaq: BKR) and developed a specialized natural gas power plant demonstration project in La Porte.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/new ... ampaign=yh

[Expat]

Koopkans: Shell en BP goedkoper dan Amerikaanse oliereuzen
Door Belegger.nl op 5 januari 2023 08:30

De Europese oliegiganten BP en Shell worden verhandeld tegen vijf keer de geschatte winst en de aandelenkoersen van beide bedrijven stegen in 2022 met zo’n 40%. Maar zij blijven aanmerkelijk achter bij hun Amerikaanse tegenhangers. Maakt dat deze olieaandelen tot aantrekkelijke koopkansen?

Brian Swint probeert op Barron’s de vraag te beantwoorden.

2022: Explosief gestegen olieprijzen
Alle grote oliemaatschappijen profiteerden in 2022 van de explosief gestegen olieprijzen nadat de wereld herstelde van de coronapandemie en Rusland Oekraïne binnenviel. Door de oorlog dreigde de aanvoer van een van 's werelds grootste exporteurs stil te vallen.

De hoge prijzen hebben gezorgd voor enkele kwartalen met recordwinsten en forse buybacks. De energie-aandelen waren het afgelopen jaar een witte raaf op de roodgekleurde aandelenmarkten.

Europa roomt overwinsten af
De vraag is of de goede tijden zullen aanhouden. De olieprijzen zijn weer gedaald en in Europa willen regeringen een deel van overwinsten afromen. Met dat geld kunnen zij huishoudens tegemoetkomen in de hoge energielasten.

In Europa is meer dan 700 miljard dollar uitgetrokken voor subsidies en prijsplafonds om burgers te compenseren. Analisten denken dat de extra heffingen geen grote impact zullen hebben op de bottom line voor de oliebedrijven. De inkomsten zullen 2022 niet evenaren maar nog steeds niet te versmaden zijn, vermoedt Allen Good, strateeg bij Morningstar. Aandeelhouders kunnen rekenen op veel aandeleninkoop en dividend.

Extra heffing raakt oliebedrijven wereldwijd
Extra winstbelastingen en prijsplafonds lossen het probleem van het energietekort eigenlijk niet op. De kans bestaat dat ze uiteindelijk de problemen verergeren doordat ze de stimulansen om te investeren verminderen, waarschuwt analist Biraj Borkhataria (RBC Capital Markets). De extra belastingen zullen Amerikaanse bedrijven even hard treffen als Europese, want alle oliebedrijven opereren wereldwijd en betalen ook belasting in Europa.

De extra heffingen treden alleen in werking bij hoge omzetten. Volgens analist James Hubbard van Deutsche Bank zullen de winsten in de sector slechts met zo’n 3% tot 4% dalen.

Duurzame korting?
Toch worden Europese bedrijven nog steeds verhandeld tegen een aanzienlijke korting ten opzichte van hun Amerikaanse tegenspelers. Een verklaring daarvoor is volgens Allen Good dat Shell en BP de afgelopen jaren grote investeringen hebben gedaan in duurzame energie. Die investeringen betekenen dat ze minder speelruimte hebben om hun olie- en gasproductie te verhogen.

Beleggers voor wie ESG belangrijk is hebben deze bedrijven echter niet beloond voor hun inspanningen op dat terrein. Voor hen blijven het fossiele producenten die nog altijd broeikasgassen veroorzaken.

Waarderingskloof blijft
De aandelenkoersen van BP en Shell zijn in 2022 met zo’n 40% gestegen en gaan tegen vijf keer de verwachte winst over de toonbank. Exxon Mobil is in dezelfde periode bijna 80% meer waard geworden en wordt tegen bijna 10 keer de verwachte winst verhandeld. Chevron steeg met 50% en wordt voor 11 keer de winst gekocht.

Alle vier de oliegiganten hebben de ambitie om in 2050 CO2-neutraal te zijn. BP en Shell investeren zo’n 1 miljard dollar per jaar in schone energie. De waarderingskloof zal in 2023 waarschijnlijk niet gedicht worden, tenzij duurzame beleggers de groene ambities van Shell en BP willen belonen. Maar dat lijkt een stap te ver, omdat deze bedrijven onder vuur blijven liggen van klimaatactivisten. Die vinden dat de oliebedrijven te traag zijn met het realiseren van hun duurzame doelstellingen.

Dividend en buybacks maken het aantrekkelijk
Toch zijn BP en Shell volgens Good aantrekkelijk voor beleggers die op zoek zijn naar blootstelling aan olie en gas. De kapitaalplannen zijn gebaseerd op een olieprijs rond de 60 dollar per vat. Momenteel ligt de prijs rond de 80 dollar per vat en dat betekent dat beleggers dividenden en aandeleninkoopprogramma’s tegemoet kunnen zien.

De vooruitzichten van een zwakkere economische groei als gevolg een hogere rente zullen de olieprijzen vrijwel zeker in bedwang houden. Maar de OPEC heeft de productiequota al verlaagd om te voorkomen dat de prijzen te ver dalen. Een recessie zal zeker gevolgen hebben voor de energiesector, maar aan de andere kant is de markt relatief krap. Good ziet een koopkans in Shell en BP.

[Beheerder]

[Frazier]

BP pulse bouwt "Europa's eerste" openbare laadcorridor voor E-trucks
23/01/2023 | 15:12

(Alliance News) - BP PLC zei maandag dat haar BP-impulsunit "de eerste laadcorridor" voor elektrische vrachtwagens in Europa heeft gelanceerd.

Zes openbare laadlocaties met laadpunten van 300 kilowatt zijn gelanceerd in de Rijn-Alpencorridor in Duitsland.

"De corridor is een van de drukste routes voor vrachtvervoer over de weg in Europa en verbindt belangrijke Noordzeehavens in België en Nederland met de mediterrane haven van Genua in Italië via een netwerk van wegen dat in totaal 1.300 kilometer lang is", aldus BP.

De stations kunnen meer dan 20 E-trucks per lader per dag opladen, met een bereik tot 200 kilometer binnen 45 minuten na het opladen.

Nigel Head, EV Truck Director Europe bij BP pule, zei: "Door dit traject van de Rijn-Alpencorridor te elektrificeren met ultrasnel laden, maakt bp opladen voor EV-trucks verder mogelijk dan 'back to base', terwijl we snel inzicht krijgen in onze klanten.

"Door te beginnen met de uitrol van een speciaal oplaadnetwerk voor vrachtvervoerders en vloten, met een focus op belangrijke logistieke corridors, ondersteunt bp de elektrificatie van middelzware en zware voertuigen, waardoor het vervoer van goederen en mensen koolstofvrij wordt gemaakt. "

BP schat dat er tegen 2030 ongeveer 270.000 batterij-elektrische middelzware en zware voertuigen in gebruik zullen zijn in Europa, waarvoor tot 140.000 openbare en bestemmingselektrische oplaadpunten nodig zijn. BP wil tegen 2030 wereldwijd meer dan 100.000 oplaadpunten installeren.

De aandelen van BP stonden maandagmiddag in Londen 0,9% hoger op 480,30 pence per stuk.

Door Tom Budszus, Alliance News verslaggever

[joni]

[nobody]

BP’s CEO Plays Down Renewables Push as Returns Lag

Bernard Looney seeks to sharpen strategic focus, with less emphasis on environmental goals

LONDON— BP BP 0.17% PLC Chief Executive Bernard Looney plans to dial back elements of the oil giant’s high-profile push into renewable energy, according to people familiar with recent discussions.

Mr. Looney has said he is disappointed in the returns from some of the oil giant’s renewable investments and plans to pursue a narrower green-energy strategy, the people said. He has told some people close to the company that BP needs to do more to convince shareholders of its strategy to maximize profits in areas where it has a competitive advantage, including its legacy oil-and-gas operations.

In some of the conversations, Mr. Looney has said he plans to place less emphasis on so-called ESG goals—a catchall term for environmental, social and governance—to help clarify that those aren’t distracting the company from its ability to deliver profits, the people said.

Mr. Looney, the people said, is casting the moves as a modest short-term course correction rather than a major strategic pivot for the 114-year-old company.

Analysts and some investors say pledges by BP to shift away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy risk handicapping the company’s performance. Many companies are struggling to transition to new green technologies while still relying heavily on traditional energy sources.

A BP spokesman referred to previous public statements Mr. Looney and BP have made about the company’s strategy, including its commitment to reducing carbon emissions and shifting investments to green energy. Mr. Looney declined to comment through the spokesman.

BP is scheduled to report full-year earnings Feb. 7 after consecutive bumper quarters boosted by massive profit in its natural-gas trading arm. The company will update investors on its strategic progress at that time, the spokesman said.

Mr. Looney, a 32-year BP veteran, took over as CEO in early 2020 and soon announced commitments to shrink greenhouse-gas emissions, including from oil and gas the company sells. Analysts said at the time that the new targets went further than rivals’ plans. Investors questioned how renewables could make up for fossil-fuel businesses that typically produced higher—if volatile—returns.

Shares of BP and London-based rival Shell PLC over the past several years have lagged behind those of U.S. competitors, especially the biggest, Exxon Mobil Corp. BP shares are up about 7% from the end of January 2020, having recovered from pandemic lows, while Exxon shares have nearly doubled over the same period.

As European oil companies, BP and Shell face greater investor and government scrutiny over their carbon-reduction plans than do U.S. rivals, which have stuck more to their core oil-and-gas businesses.

BP shares climbed more than 1% on Wednesday morning in early trading.

Mr. Looney has said in some of the recent discussions that the company will continue its push into renewable energy, but with a finer-tuned focus to avoid spreading resources too thinly or relying too heavily on renewables in its broader strategy. He has suggested that areas of continued emphasis will include developing climate-friendly hydrogen, biogas and electric-vehicle partnerships and charging networks, the people said.

He and other BP executives have suggested that the company could play down future investment in areas including solar energy and offshore wind, according to some of the people.

Discussions about the company’s direction have caused rifts inside BP over the past year, people close to the company say.

Mr. Looney’s comments follow a challenging three years as CEO for the 52-year-old Irishman. He took over the role as the pandemic was beginning to destroy global energy demand and kneecap U.S. and European major oil companies. BP in 2020 suffered brutal losses and, like peers, slashed its dividend.

Since then, major oil companies have come roaring back with record profits, making them a target of ire from governments and consumers struggling with high energy prices amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. BP and other majors in the past year have showered investors with tens of billions of dollars in share buybacks and dividends, in response to shareholder demands for cash after years of lackluster returns.

BP has said it plans by 2030 to slash its fossil-fuel production by 40% from 2019 levels. Mr. Looney has set a target of increasing investments in what it calls “transition growth businesses” including renewable energy and convenience-store operations to around 50% of total capital spending by 2030, up from more than 40% by 2025. Mr. Looney and his lieutenants have said the company is balancing its deeper push into low-emission projects while still nurturing legacy cash cows like oil-and-gas production and trading.

In February 2022, executives sought to reassure investors by saying BP intends to sustain earnings from oil and gas at $30 billion to $35 billion annually, excluding taxes and other factors, through this decade despite the planned production cuts. They said BP would do that by cutting costs and focusing on high-margin production such as offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

That outlook compares with BP’s target to make more than $10 billion a year by 2030 from renewable energy, biogas and other businesses outside of oil-and-gas production.

Finance chief Murray Auchincloss a year ago told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the fossil-fuel production cuts wouldn’t have a big impact on cash flow, “but there are still some parts of the sector that didn’t understand that.”

BP has argued that renewable-energy returns will prove more stable than oil-and-gas profit over the long haul, helping its strategy pay off.

But the path has been rocky. In 2020, BP spent $1.1 billion to acquire 50% stakes in two Northeastern U.S. offshore-wind developments from Norwegian rival Equinor ASA, an early player in offshore wind. The move marked BP’s entry into the offshore-wind market. Other wind-project developers and investors still consider the price BP paid as inflated.

BP said the stakes and its new strategic partnership with Equinor would open up opportunities elsewhere in the U.S. offshore-wind market. But project managers with other companies have seen BP shying away from expanding its U.S. offshore-wind ambitions as initially described, according to people familiar with the matter. BP balked at the last minute last year at joining Equinor in competing for wind-energy rights off California, some of the people say.

In October 2022, BP agreed to buy U.S. biogas producer Archaea Energy Inc. in a $4.1 billion deal including $3.3 billion in cash. It was BP’s biggest acquisition since 2018.

“One of the misconceptions about our strategy is that we’re going from oil to renewables. That is not what we are doing,” Mr. Looney said in a February 2022 podcast interview with Nicolai Tangen, head of Norges Bank Investment Management, the sovereign-wealth fund that invests Norway’s oil wealth and is one of BP’s biggest investors.

Mr. Looney went on to say that oil and gas remain core to BP and will help fund its “transition growth engines” like electric-vehicle charging and bioenergy. “Transition does not equal lower returns,” he said on the podcast.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bps-ceo-pl ... eid=yhoof2

[nobody]

BP to be shot into spotlight with expected bumper profits set to be revealed

The size of the pile of cash that BP made last year will be made bare on Tuesday, opening the company up to the same criticism that hit its rival Shell this week.

Boss Bernard Looney is expected to reveal what could be the highest profit in BP’s history, after the company benefited from the fossil fuel crisis that has characterised so much of the past year.

Oil, and especially gas, prices soared in 2022, with the former hitting a record high at more than 10 times the average over the decade leading up to the pandemic.

It made for a good year for the bank accounts of oil companies, but a worse year for their reputations.

Labour would stop the energy price cap going up in April, because it is only right that the companies making unexpected windfall profits from the proceeds of war pay their fair share

Ed Miliband, shadow climate change secretary
Analysts currently expect that BP made 5.04 billion dollars (£4.2 billion) in underlying replacement cost profit, the company’s preferred measure, in the last three months of 2022.

It would mean the annual result nearly doubling to 27.8 billion dollars (£22.9 billion).

It has been a good year to be a BP shareholder, by Friday afternoon shares were 48% higher than they had been at the end of 2021.

“Oil and gas prices are now trading some way off their peaks, but the shares continue to rise, which is intriguing,” wrote Russ Mould and Danni Hewson at AJ Bell.

“Perhaps the markets are sensing another upward move in the price of fossil fuels, and perhaps that’s thanks to the prospect of increased demand from China as its economy reopens, America’s need to replenish its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, weak Russian output, OPEC’s apparent determination to maintain a balanced market and the majors’ unwillingness (or inability) to markedly increase capital investment in exploration and production.”

Whatever happens, there is bound to be political controversy on Tuesday.

After Shell reported record annual profits earlier this week, it sparked calls for tougher policies from the Government.

Labour shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: “Labour would stop the energy price cap going up in April, because it is only right that the companies making unexpected windfall profits from the proceeds of war pay their fair share.”

Even ahead of BP’s results, campaigning group Greenpeace said that the oil giant’s profits for the first three quarters of the year could be enough to pay for the devastation caused by recent flooding in South Africa seven times over.

It argued that there is “considerable momentum growing” for companies that have helped pollute the atmosphere through history, and contributed to climate change, to pay into a compensation system that was agreed at the climate talks last autumn.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/b ... 76006232da

[nobody]

What to Expect From BP Earnings

BP is set to issue fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, with results expected to be lower than during the previous period.

JPMorgan's Christyan Malek talks about his expectations for BP and the wider industry on "Bloomberg Markets."

[nobody]

BP profits soar to record of $28 billion, dividend increased

LONDON (Reuters) - BP reported on Tuesday a record profit of $27.6 billion in 2022 which was lifted by a surge in energy prices since Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the company also boosted its dividend by 10%.

BP's fourth-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, the company's definition of net income, reached $4.8 billion, compared with forecasts of a $5 billion profit in a company-provided survey of analysts.

That compared with $4 billion a year earlier and $8.2 billion in the third quarter of 2022.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/st ... ountview=0

[LukakuFan]

Stevige afschrijving, handig om de extra taksen op oliemaatschappijen te beperken.

Ook BP profiteert van hoge energieprijzen en boekt recordwinst
Door onze economieredactie
07 feb 2023 om 10:19

De Britse olie- en gasproducent BP heeft vorig jaar net als Shell en Exxon Mobil een recordwinst geboekt die vooral te danken is aan de hoge energieprijzen.
BP boekte een operationele winst van 28 miljard dollar (26 miljard euro). Dat is meer dan een verdubbeling ten opzichte van vorig jaar. De prijzen van olie en gas zijn vorig jaar fors gestegen vanwege de oorlog in Oekraïne.

Die prijsstijgingen hebben de resultaten van energiebedrijven flink gestuwd. Zo heeft olie- en gasconcern Shell over 2022 een recordwinst van 38,4 miljard euro geboekt. Ook dat was meer dan een verdubbeling in vergelijking met de winst van een jaar eerder.

Onder de streep noteerde BP een nettoverlies van 2,5 miljard dollar. Dat komt door een enorme afschrijving op het belang in het Russische olieconcern Rosneft. Vanwege de oorlog in Oekraïne en de westerse sancties heeft BP zich uit Rusland teruggetrokken. BP was bijna dertig jaar actief in het land.