Speaking at the Indian Energy Forum in New Delhi, Bernard Looney, the CEO of BP, has called for the energy system to be made more robust in future through investment in diversification, storage and longer-term deals.
Prices for gas, oil and even coal have surged in recent weeks, raising costs for businesses and consumers around the world. Some think this may put the global economic recovery at risk or create inflationary pressures.
Looney said, however, that the real issue was not the current situation but how things develop in the winter, adding:
“People are doing what they can to get ready for that but I think what it means in the longer term…we must invest into things like longer term contracts, invest into natural gas which remains a great balancer in the system, invest into storage and invest into diversification.”
BP, which makes the Castrol lubricant range, recently signed a deal for 10 years to pipe natural gas to a division of the Shenzhen Gas Group Co. Ltd. of China from 2023. It is also aiming to meet 15% of the natural gas needs in India.
While natural gas remains an important part of the energy mix and a core market for BP, the company is increasingly focusing on electricity generation, so it wants to bolster its energy-trading division, which is already one of the largest in the world. Looney said the company particularly wanted to grow its electricity-generation business in Europe and China, but was also looking at the US market.
