BP’s renewable energy projects have made much profit yet: CEO

BP’s renewable energy projects aren’t having much of an impact on the group’s profits yet, the oil giant’s chief executive told an audience in London on Wednesday.

“We love our wind farms in the United States and our biofuels in Brazil and we continue to invest in these businesses and they’re profitable,” BP’s Bob Dudley told an audience in London where he was speaking on the subject of energy transition, “but it’s fair to say they don’t, as yet, make a material difference to the bottom line,” Dudley said.

“A sustainable business has to be profitable,” he added.

Dudley said the company was committed to investing in renewable energy projects but that the transition of the industry towards renewable sources of energy would be a long process.

“The evolution of the energy markets is going to take decades and decades and decades,” Dudley said.

While BP was one of the larger investors in renewables among its peers, Dudley said, it was still committed to its “oil and gas business,” saying that “despite the attraction of renewables, the world can’t currently run on them.”

“Renewables are clearly coming of age and yet even with the most aggressive forecasts for renewables, the world will likely be looking elsewhere to other sources of energy for the next few decades,” he said.

“Global demand for energy continues to grow as prosperity increases and the world population rises, giving us a dual challenge — we must meet increased energy demand while also transitioning to a low carbon future.”

Source: CNBC