BP lifts the veil of secrecy on big oil trading profits
BP Plc offered a glimpse of the profitability of its huge and secretive trading arm, suggesting it makes annual returns of as much as $2.5 billion.
The revelation, which came during presentations this week about the company’s clean energy plans, follows the emergence of trading in the first half of the year as one of the few bright spots for BP and its peers. The operations brought a torrent of cash that partly offset the impact of the coronavirus crisis on oil prices and energy demand.
BP’s in-house trading business has a “long track record” of boosting the company’s return on average capital employed (RoACE) by “close to” 2 percentage points, according to chief executive officer Bernard Looney.
