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Less than one year ago, at BP’s October centennial celebration, CEO Tony Hayward spoke proudly of BP’s position on the frontier of the energy industry.
But the company’s traditional practice of undertaking high-risk expeditionary projects might be rapidly coming to a close as it finds itself having trouble acquiring contracts for areas of the world with even a minor environmental interest.
The most recent and telling sign was BP’s exclusion from the bidding for a potentially lucrative new location off the coast of Greenland, where natural gas deposits were recently discovered. With a Greenpeace ship already having taken up residence in the arctic location, Greenland Premier Kuupik Kleist remarked that the company suffered very low chances of being awarded the license, prompting BP to announce its withdrawal from bidding despite early interest.
As eyes and probes shift elsewhere in the arctic to search for new sources of fossil fuels, it might not be the last location BP will face trouble obtaining certification, as images of the Gulf of Mexico disaster remain fresh in the minds of the world.
BP has been methodically selling many of its holdings to pay for the estimated $30 billion in cleanup, lawsuit, and restitution charges related to the incident. It appears to be holding on to its deep-sea assets, disposing of land-based holdings, signaling its intentions to remain in that market.
The corporation has not met significant difficulties in some less developed areas of the world. In particular, most of its Russian and Middle Eastern partners, primarily state-owned oil companies, are not dramatically shifting their stance toward the company. Still, with a stock price that has fallen 40 percent since the explosion, limited ability to expand could cause a problem for some time to come.
