BP Company Profile: Oil Major in Transition 2026

BP plc is one of the world’s seven oil and gas majors, producing approximately 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) across upstream exploration and production, gas and low carbon energy, oil production and operations, customers and products, and a trading division that ranks among the largest commodity trading operations of any energy company. Headquartered in London and dual-listed on the London Stock Exchange and NYSE, BP entered 2026 in the middle of a significant strategic reset — pulling back from its most ambitious net-zero commitments, reinstating upstream investment, and confronting a $6.5 billion dispute over its Tangguh LNG expansion in Indonesia. This BP company profile covers the full operational and strategic picture in 2026.

BP Company Overview

BP — originally British Petroleum, later Beyond Petroleum, now trading simply as BP — traces its origins to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, founded in 1908 following the discovery of oil in what is now Iran. Nationalised assets, Cold War diplomacy, and a series of major mergers shaped the company across the twentieth century; the 1998 merger with Amoco and the 2000 acquisition of ARCO and Burmah Castrol established BP as a genuine supermajor alongside ExxonMobil, Shell, and Chevron.

BP employs approximately 90,000 people across more than 70 countries. Its market capitalisation as of early 2026 sits in the range of $90-100 billion — significantly below Shell and ExxonMobil, reflecting both lower production volumes and the market’s scepticism toward BP’s strategic direction following several years of underperformance relative to peers. The company is listed on the LSE under ticker BP. and on the NYSE as BP. Murray Auchincloss became CEO in January 2024 following Bernard Looney’s resignation, and has moved quickly to reorient the company’s capital allocation back toward oil and gas.

Upstream Production & Reserves

BP’s upstream portfolio spans the Gulf of Mexico deepwater, the North Sea, Azerbaijan, Trinidad and Tobago, Egypt, Oman, Iraq, Angola, and Australia. The company has been reshaping this portfolio since 2020, when then-CEO Bernard Looney announced a plan to reduce oil and gas production by 40% by 2030 — a target that has since been substantially revised downward under Auchincloss, with BP now targeting production broadly flat at around 2.3-2.5 million boepd through the mid-decade period rather than pursuing aggressive decline.

The Gulf of Mexico remains BP’s most important operated deepwater province, with major producing assets including Thunder Horse, Mad Dog, Atlantis, and Na Kika. Thunder Horse, co-owned with ExxonMobil, has been producing since 2008 and underwent a significant infill drilling programme in recent years to sustain output. Mad Dog Phase 2 — the Argos platform — achieved first oil in 2023, adding approximately 140,000 bpd of gross capacity.

In Azerbaijan, BP operates the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oilfield in the Caspian Sea — one of the largest oil developments in the former Soviet Union — and the Shah Deniz gas field, the anchor supply source for the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline system. BP holds a 30.37% interest in ACG and 28.8% in Shah Deniz. These two assets give BP an outsized position in Caspian energy and a central role in European gas supply security, a position that has only grown in strategic importance since 2022. BP’s upstream portfolio is consistently ranked among the largest in the sector — see the full ranking of top upstream oil and gas companies in 2026.

Proved reserves stood at approximately 17.8 billion boe at end-2023, including BP’s equity share of Rosneft — a figure that requires a significant caveat. BP held a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, which it announced it would divest following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The divestment has not been completed — Russian law prevents the transfer of strategic assets without government approval — leaving BP in the unusual position of retaining a stake it cannot sell, cannot actively manage, and cannot recognise earnings from. The Rosneft position continues to distort BP’s reported reserves and asset base.

BP Company Profile: Gas, LNG & the Tangguh Dispute

BP’s gas and LNG portfolio is anchored by its operated position at Tangguh LNG in Papua Province, Indonesia, where BP holds a 40.22% interest and operates two producing trains with a combined capacity of 7.6 MTPA. A third train — Tangguh Train 3 — was completed and achieved first LNG in 2023, adding approximately 3.8 MTPA of additional capacity. The full BP LNG terminals and network reflects a portfolio built around long-term Asian off-take commitments, with Tangguh supplying buyers in China, Japan, South Korea, and the US West Coast.

Tangguh is also the source of BP’s most significant ongoing commercial dispute. The company disclosed a $6.5 billion claim — later described as a contractual disagreement with the Indonesian government over fiscal terms applied to the Train 3 expansion — in its 2023 annual report. The dispute concerns cost recovery arrangements and has not been publicly resolved as of the current register date. It represents a material contingent liability that has weighed on investor sentiment toward BP’s Asian gas portfolio.

Beyond Tangguh, BP holds LNG interests through its stake in the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim FLNG project off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal — one of West Africa’s first LNG export projects, with BP as operator and 56% interest holder targeting approximately 2.5 MTPA. First LNG from Tortue was achieved in 2024 after extended delays, marking a significant milestone for West African gas commercialisation. BP also participates in the Oman LNG project through a 30% stake in the Block 61 gas field that feeds the plant.

Shah Deniz gas — delivered via the Southern Gas Corridor through the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) — supplies Southern European markets directly. BP is the operator of Shah Deniz and holds interests in both pipeline systems, giving it an integrated gas position from wellhead to European delivery point that few other companies can replicate. The world’s largest LNG storage operators depend on suppliers like BP to underpin long-term off-take agreements that justify storage infrastructure investment.

Refining, Chemicals & Castrol

BP’s refining footprint has contracted significantly since the early 2000s, when the company operated more than a dozen refineries globally. The current network includes Whiting, Indiana (approximately 435,000 bpd — one of the largest US refineries and the primary processor of Canadian oil sands crude in the Midwest), Cherry Point, Washington (approximately 225,000 bpd), Toledo, Ohio (a 50/50 joint venture with Husky Energy at approximately 160,000 bpd), and a stake in the Lingen refinery in Germany through its Ruhr Oel JV with Rosneft — a stake now entangled in the same divestment complications as the Rosneft equity position itself.

BP exited its chemicals business in 2020-2021, divesting its global petrochemicals unit — including the Innovene business — to INEOS for $5 billion. This was a deliberate simplification of the portfolio, removing a capital-intensive business with structurally lower margins than upstream or LNG. The company retains Castrol, its lubricants brand, as part of the Customers and Products segment. Castrol is one of the world’s most recognised lubricants brands, supplying automotive, industrial, and marine markets globally, and generates meaningful cash flow with limited capital requirements.

Trading, Retail & Low Carbon

BP’s trading division — BP Trading and Shipping — is one of the world’s largest physical commodity traders, active across crude oil, refined products, natural gas, LNG, power, and emissions. The trading desk adds material value to BP’s upstream and refining operations through optimisation, and is a significant profit centre in its own right during periods of market volatility. BP does not separately disclose trading earnings but the contribution is widely estimated to run in the billions of dollars annually.

In retail fuels, BP operates approximately 18,000 branded service stations globally, including the Ampm convenience brand in the US and the Wild Bean Café format internationally. The retail network has been rationalised from a peak of around 25,000 sites, with BP focusing on higher-margin locations and integrated convenience formats rather than volume-driven fuel throughput.

BP’s low-carbon investments have been substantially repriced under Auchincloss. The company reduced its renewable energy investment targets in early 2024, cut staffing in its low-carbon divisions, and refocused the balance sheet on oil and gas cash generation. Retained low-carbon positions include offshore wind through the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind leases off the US East Coast — both under active development with Equinor — and bioenergy through the Archaea Energy biomethane business acquired in 2022. The global pipeline infrastructure that connects BP’s upstream gas production to markets remains central to its cash generation regardless of how the low-carbon portfolio evolves.

2026 Strategy: The Auchincloss Reset

Murray Auchincloss inherited a company that had made bold net-zero commitments under Bernard Looney — including a 40% production cut by 2030 and $5 billion per year in low-carbon investment — and found those commitments incompatible with the financial returns shareholders were demanding. The strategic reset announced in February 2024 pulled back production decline targets, reduced low-carbon spending, reinstated upstream investment particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and Azerbaijan, and committed to $14-18 billion in annual capital expenditure through 2027 with oil and gas taking the largest share.

The reset has been met with cautious approval from equity investors but has left BP exposed to criticism from environmental stakeholders and created internal uncertainty about the company’s long-term direction. BP’s share price has materially underperformed Shell and ExxonMobil since 2022, and activist investor pressure — including a reported approach from Elliott Management in early 2025 — has added urgency to Auchincloss’s restructuring programme.

In 2026, BP’s priorities are clear: restore Gulf of Mexico deepwater production growth, progress Tortue FLNG toward plateau output, resolve or ring-fence the Tangguh fiscal dispute, and generate sufficient free cash flow to sustain dividends and buybacks while funding the upstream reinvestment programme. The Rosneft stake remains an unresolved overhang with no visible exit path under current geopolitical conditions.

BP Company Snapshot