The coronavirus pandemic has been a unfounded drive for the oil manufacture as it struggles to make do with cratering demand for its primary product . The biggest hits have been to small house and halfway - tier up oil companies , but Big Oil is feel the impacts , too .
In an email to staff on Monday that was alsopublished on LinkedIn , BP CEO Bernard Looney announce the company would be lay off 10,000 workers . He called it part of some “ tough decision ” but that “ we must do the right thing for bp and this is that right thing . ” ( Yes , it ’s technically lowercase “ bp ” because brands gon na stigma . )
While Looney articulate the company will offer “ solid breach packages , ” including line and chore - seek training , a laptop computer , and a vague hand - undulation of an alumni net , the layoff are a clear augury Big Oil is in big trouble . As a reminder , oil pricesbriefly went negativea little more than a calendar month ago , and company werespending a fortunestashing oil at sea because nobody want it amid thebiggest demand drop ever . Shell ’s leadershipkicked off Mayby warning it ask an “ L - shaped recovery ” with demand never recovering for its mathematical product .
Photo: Getty
https://gizmodo.com/shell-ok-we-may-actually-be-fucked-this-time-1843200534
It ’s against this background that BP is decide to rest people off in an attempt to cut $ 2.5 billion in operating monetary value in 2021 . Looney said it would mostly be spot workers , though how that really shake out remain to be seen . What they ’ll be meet education for is also undecipherable , though if it ’s a future in the oil business organisation , that ai n’t it .
“ I really believe we are build something particular , ” Looney write . “ We are building a companionship that can help the world through the energy transition and help oneself improve people ’s life . ”
So to recap : BP is give notice almost 15 percent of its hands to build up something especial . That something special is a transition away from fossil fuels , the affair the company currently specializes in . It wo n’t be using this opportunity to train any of its frontline employees working on the real extraction side to work on said transition . Oh , and its plan to get to net zero emissions by 2050 ishot dress .
The tide are absolutely turn against BP and other fossil oil companies bad and small . Even before coronavirus scandalise the system , they were sour smaller profits , and popular opinion was turn against an economy run on fossil fuel due for the most part to the youthfulness climate move . BP paring one million million off its operating costs , and firing worker is the latest signaling of excitement — and that no matter how hard Trump administration tries to make vegetable oil acenterpiece of the recovery , the economical and political odds are not in its favor .
That 10,000 hoi polloi are losing their jobs at one society amid the foresighted - term decline of the petroleum industriousness should be a wakeup call to politicians everywhere that they necessitate a program for industry workers and fast . Even if BP largely go on oilfield job out of its layoff architectural plan now , the foresightful - term viability of those jobs is null give the stakes of a habitable planet . While it ’s squeamish BP is going to propose prole grooming or whatever , workers postulate a real , guaranteed safety net . The rather it ’s put in place , the less needless hurt Big Oil ’s collapse will cause — and the faster the man can transition to a twenty-first - one C saving . That ’s the existent correct matter to do , not just for BP but for everyone .
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