Less trips and journeys mean that oil and gasoline sales plummet. The share price is at a 25-year low.
After the first loss in a decade, the British oil company BP warns of further burdens from the corona pandemic for 2021. The board of directors is expecting a recovery in oil and gas prices, which had collapsed due to lower demand in the previous year, announced BP on Tuesday.
Hard year
But the new COVID-19 restrictions would put a further strain on demand, with fewer trips and fewer trips to work with more employees working from home. The sale of oil and gasoline to private individuals fell by around 20 percent in January compared to the previous year, compared with a minus of eleven percent in the fourth quarter.
Depreciation due to the long-term depressed energy prices pushed BP deep into the red last year. The loss totaled $ 5.7 billion (about 4.7 billion euros). In the fourth quarter, BP made a small profit of 115 million euros, compared to the 2.6 billion dollars from the previous year, but only a fraction.
“A tough quarter at the end of a tough year,” said CEO Bernard Looney in a conference call with analysts. The shares lost more than three percent on the London Stock Exchange.
BP management had already announced that oil consumption, which had collapsed as a result of the pandemic, could only partially recover over the next few years, despite decreasing travel restrictions. The trend towards home offices will lead to slower growth in energy consumption, it said.
doubt
BP shares lost more than 40 percent of their value last year and are at a 25-year low. Investors threw the papers out of the depot not only because of the weak business in the corona pandemic. They also doubt that BP will actually make the switch to renewable energies.
The 112-year-old oil and gas company wants to focus entirely on green energy in the future. By the middle of the century, carbon emissions from own business activities should be reduced to zero.
