BP cuts 4,700 jobs globally in cost-cutting drive

LONDON (AP) — British oil company BP is cutting 4,700 jobs worldwide and 3,000 more contractor positions as part of a cost-cutting drive.

In an email to staff Thursday received by The Associated Press, CEO Murray Auchincloss said the job losses “represent a large portion of the planned reduction this year.”

The reductions represent just over 5% of BP’s 90,000 employees worldwide. The Auchincloss memo says around 2,600 of the contractors involved in the job cuts have already left the company.

Last October, the company said it had identified $500 million in cost savings to be made this year, a quarter of the $2 billion target set in April by the end of 2026.

Auchincloss said the company is “focusing resources on our highest value opportunities” and has stopped or paused 30 projects since June.

The cuts come as BP attempts to introduce more digital capabilities into the company, with artificial intelligence increasingly playing a role in engineering and marketing operations.

In April, Auchincloss announced a plan to deliver savings of $2 billion (£1.6 billion) by the end of 2026.

The plan is aimed in part at reinvigorating the company’s stock price, which has fallen about 20% since last spring.

BP has also pulled out of a number of renewable energy projects and, according to media reports, scrapped a previous plan to cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030.

Auchincloss, however, said the company was still “uniquely positioned to drive value through the energy transition” but needed to “continue to improve our competitiveness and evolve at the pace of our customers and society.” .

It comes days after BP delayed an investor event scheduled to be held in New York to allow the CEO to recover from a medical procedure. The financial markets event scheduled for February 11 has been postponed to February 26 and will take place in London “to ensure its full recovery.”