The wider energy industry has meanwhile been hit hard by the pandemic as the widespread limits on business, travel and public life reduced the need for oil, gas and other fuels.
“To me, the broader economic picture and our own financial position just reaffirm the need to reinvent BP,″ Looney said in the email. ”While the external environment is driving us to move faster – and perhaps go deeper at this stage than we originally intended – the direction of travel remains the same.″
David Elmes, who leads the Global Energy Research Network at Warwick Business School, said BP’s cuts are symptomatic of the wider challenges facing the industry, with firms in the sector thinking about cutting costs. Major companies like BP with diversified businesses are likely to survive the pandemic, but smaller oil producers are going to have a harder time, analysts say.