BHP Overstayed in Petroleum. Time to Exit
2020 looks like a turning point for the oil industry. Cashing in now and planning a greener future makes sense.
No future on the horizon.
Photographer: Rob Homer/Fairfax Media/Getty
BHP Group’s future can do without hydrocarbons.
The world’s largest digger is among the last heavyweights to mix mines with a significant presence in oil, a combination that is becoming harder to justify over the long term. Crude demand will be slow to recover after a pandemic that has kept workers home and jets grounded, and some of that appetite will never come back. Meanwhile, pressure to cut carbon emissions is only increasing. Oil giant BP Plc is the latest to take a hit, warning it expects impairments and write-offs worth as much as $17.5 billion due to a more gloomy view of what lies ahead. The Big Australian could benefit from a dose of that realism.