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Bp PLC Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Bp PLC (BP)

Earnings Call FY2026 Q1 Call date: 2026-03-31 Concluded

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Speaker 0

Welcome, everyone, to BP's First Quarter 2026 Financial Results Call, which we're hosting today from our offices in Washington, D.C. I'm joined by Marguerite O’Neill, Chief Executive Officer; Carol Howle, Deputy Chief Executive Officer; and Katherine Thomson, Chief Financial Officer. I hope many of you will have seen our 1Q video by now, and we look forward to taking questions shortly. Before that, though, let me hand over to Marguerite for a few brief opening remarks. Marguerite?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Craig, and hello, everyone. It's great to be here. And as I said in the video, it is a privilege to be here as BP CEO, and I'm really excited about the opportunity ahead of us. This has been another strong quarter for BP despite a lot of external volatility and importantly, our underlying operations continue to perform well. We produced 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, supported by continued high plant reliability, higher production in the Gulf of America and strong performance in BPX, offsetting disruptions in the Middle East and some divestment impacts. Refining availability was above our target of 96% and throughput was over 1.5 million barrels per day, our highest quarterly figure in 4 years. In trading, our focus remains on capturing value through the cycle while operating within a clearly defined risk framework. This all supported delivery of $3.2 billion of underlying net income, significantly higher than the fourth quarter, and $8.9 billion of operating cash flow before a working capital build of $6 billion. We also made progress in simplifying our portfolio with the agreed sale of the Gelsenkirchen refinery announced in March, further increasing our structural cost reduction target by end 2027. And while net debt increased this quarter, this was largely due to a build in working capital. We remain confident in delivery of our net debt target and we also announced today our plan to reduce our corporate hybrid stack by over $4 billion by the end of 2027, subject to market conditions. So continued strong operational and financial delivery and accelerating strategic progress, a lot of really great work by the team. Carol, Katherine and I are looking forward to your questions. And with that, I'll hand back to Craig to take us through the Q&A.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Marguerite. I'm going to take one question per person, please. So everyone gets the chance to ask and William to wrap the call up in about 45 minutes. So on that first question, we'll move to Josh Stone at UBS.

Speaker 2

Congratulations on the new role. I wanted to touch on something you said in your prepared remarks about going back to the traditional upstream, downstream reporting lines, the review to reduce complexity, increase accountability. Can you maybe just expand on what this means in practice for BP, perhaps where you see the biggest benefits coming from there? What needs to change internally? And also how the organization has responded so far to that announcement?

Speaker 1

Well, thanks for the question, Josh. The decision to move towards an upstream/downstream model is all about changing ways of working and driving simplification, driving improved accountability and focus and speed in decision-making. If you think about how the business operates, it's quite a different skill set. The skill set associated with finding oil and gas resources, developing and producing them is quite different from the way of thinking that's associated with getting customers the products they need, getting refining set up to deliver the product mix, be it gasoline, diesel, jet. I think it's also important to really highlight the value that we see within BP of our trading organization which allows us to maximize value from molecules as they move from refining all the way to those end customers. But it's all about driving accountability, driving simplicity and efficiency and decision-making and the initial response from the organization has been very positive.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Josh. We'll move next to Michele Della Vigna at Goldman Sachs.

Speaker 3

Congratulations on a quarter that really showed strength. Marguerite, from your time as CEO of Woodside, you led a company of that size. I'm just wondering how important do you think revamping oil and gas growth is to the BP investment case?

Speaker 1

Yes, great question. One of the things that I would highlight is some of the exploration success that we've had over the past year and a bit. So we've announced 14 discoveries since the start of 2025. I think it's important, Michele, to highlight that a number of those are what I would call short cycle. Those are discoveries that can quickly be tied back to existing infrastructure. Those are opportunities to bring production online at pace, which helps with mitigating production decline, which is something we, of course, always fight in the base business. We do have other more material longer-term growth options. Bumerangue is probably the most noteworthy. It's not every day you discover an 8 billion-barrel-in-place field; obviously, a bit of work to do. We need to do appraisal, but that's a significant part of our longer-term growth story. Complementary to the work that's underway already in the Gulf of America with the Paleogene development and BPX onshore. So production growth is part of our plan. But I think it's important to go back to some of the points we made in the announcement and points that Katherine has been making for a while: we've got to get the balance sheet strengthened. A stronger balance sheet puts us in a position where we can make those investments in production growth through the cycle. That's how we're thinking about the totality. I'm excited about the opportunities we have, but the focus right now is making sure we've got that laser focus on delivery every day and strengthening the balance sheet.

Speaker 0

We'll turn next to Doug Leggate at Wolfe Research.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Craig. Good morning, everyone. Marguerite, you've inherited the capital structure, which has been getting a lot of attention. And obviously, the hybrids get mentioned now as part of the targeted reduction in debt and equivalents. I'm just curious, from your standpoint, is there an ideal capital structure that you think of? I mean, in the current environment, for example, one could argue there is a line of sight where the hybrids could be taken out completely, given the weight of the prospective cash flow you have. So I'm just curious how you think about what defines the capital structure and where you see the right balance of debt and equity and equivalents.

Speaker 1

Yes. Thanks, Doug. It's a really good question. One of the things that I think about — and this is probably a very simplistic way of talking about it, and I'll hand to Katherine for a bit more detail — is when we think about sources and uses of cash, one of the things we're trying to tackle is the amount of cash that is going to liabilities. And so that underpins the work that we're doing: strengthening the balance sheet, tackling net debt, now tackling hybrids. You would be aware of the Deepwater Horizon obligations that we're chipping through and the end of the obligations is within sight just a few years down the track. So it's all about reducing the amount of cash that we generate that's going to these liabilities, which means more cash is available for investing in the future of the business and returning value to shareholders. But I'll hand to Katherine to talk about the stack and more specifics.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Marguerite. Hello, Doug, good to hear your voice. Back in February, we made the decision as a Board to pause our buybacks, and that was a very deliberate act to accelerate the pace with which we were going to strengthen the balance sheet and deliver on our net debt target. Accelerating the deleverage is incredibly important. It creates the platform for growing our company and it gives us a greater generation of free cash flow, lower financing costs, confidence in resilient distributions to shareholders and investing for growth through cycles. The level of confidence that we have in the delivery of our net debt target is what has given us the space to be able to make an economic decision around $4 billion of our hybrids, which is very clearly the two tranches that come forward for redemption in '26 and '27. I'd go back though to the holistic view of our total financial obligations that we shared deliberately in February. We're moving at pace to reduce across that, but we will be making economically driven decisions as we step into that and rebuild the balance sheet. And that's all about how we create our platform for everything that's to come.

Speaker 0

We will move next to Biraj Borkhataria at RBC.

Speaker 6

Just to follow up on the hybrid stack, it's more of a technical question. So I understand you can't talk about your intention to do more than the 25% you've announced. But in practical terms, there are obviously various call dates for the remaining bonds. Would you need to wait for those and step through those step by step or is there a scenario where if you had the disposable cash, you could do all the remaining hybrid bonds in one go? Just thoughts on that.

Speaker 5

I'll take that, Biraj. Good to hear your voice. In terms of the announcement that we've made today and how to think about that, we expect that S&P will commit the reduction under the methodology on corporate. Remember that is $12 billion, the original hybrid that we issued in June 2020. So we expect to maintain the equity treatment on that. In terms of moving forward, two things are important. One, hybrids remain an important and a permanent part of our capital structure. And two, retiring hybrids ahead of reduction periods can be very expensive depending on market conditions. So that's something we would think incredibly carefully about. I think the most economic way to retire hybrids is to allow them to roll off as they hit those periods. The first window opened in March and concludes in the second quarter, hence our guidance in terms of what we're going to be doing. And don't forget that will be part of a working capital build in the second quarter as a component of our working capital as that rolls off.

Speaker 0

We will take the next question from Lydia Rainforth at Barclays.

Speaker 7

Marguerite, welcome. I'm going to come back to this idea of talking about simplifying BP. Can you give us some concrete examples of what you actually mean? Because when I think about the upstream/downstream reorg, we're talking about simplification a lot. And then just linked to that, are the targets that BP have already set out the extent of the ambition we should think about? Or should we think about that being more than that over time? I'm not talking short term, but just over time.

Speaker 1

Sure. On the simplifying front, perhaps the clearest example is with the structure right now where production and operations and refining sit under the same portfolio, which has been really valuable in driving performance improvement in refining. If you look at our reliability numbers, upstream and downstream are both in that 96% range, and I think that's a reflection of the value of having brought those parts of the business together. But it adds complexity if you think about how refining fits in the value chain. Getting refining right is about getting the right supply into the plants and getting the right products to customers. So much closer links to the customers and products and the mobility and convenience and aviation businesses. Moving refining into downstream really aligns it with the flow of products and allows the leader of that business to think holistically about how you maximize value from the front of the refinery all the way to the end customer. So that's a good example of how the upstream/downstream model will drive more efficient decision-making. Now the targets that we've announced out to 2027 are still in place and that would represent first quartile performance across the business and in all of our support functions. But obviously, we're going to be relentless in continuing to challenge ourselves, continuing to learn, continuing to benchmark and making sure that wherever we are in the business we continue to have that chronic drive for cost efficiency, for safe, reliable operations and for best-in-class performance. That's our goal.

Speaker 0

We'll take the next question from Chris Kuplent at Bank of America.

Speaker 8

Can I ask a very open question. I'm sure you've been very excited for months now to arrive at BP. Can you look back and say what's been the thing that's getting you most excited about it, perhaps already last year. And since you've actually entered, what's been the most surprising thing you've encountered? The two may be the same thing. I hope I get away with asking just this question.

Speaker 1

Sure. It's a real honor to be part of the BP team. I've worked in a large integrated company and on pure-play E&P. The thing that excites me about BP is the breadth of the business. We've got world-class upstream with some really fantastic assets. We've got a very dynamic downstream and some very critical markets for our customers and then a world-class trading organization. I think we've got all of the ingredients to be a really phenomenal company. The team has been on a journey for the last couple of years trying to make sure that we are delivering on the potential of the organization. So I think there's opportunity to continue that journey to bring a bit more momentum to the decisions and the progress that the team has been making over the past year. In terms of the most surprising thing, I'd say it's been a really warm welcome, which is surprising. BP's culture of care is well known, but seeing the kind of commercial capability up close — which I'd only ever seen across the table as a joint venture partner — has been impressive. We've got some really capable people here and I think we've got all the raw ingredients between the assets and the talent to deliver on the full potential of the corporation.

Speaker 0

We'll take the next question from Henry Tarr at Berenberg.

Speaker 9

I suppose to come back to something that was asked earlier, you sort of referenced a stronger and simpler BP. As you look at the business, are there particular core regions or assets that you think are very strong, and then perhaps others which might seem even after the divestment program that aren't quite as core? And then within that, how do you view BPX as part of the portfolio?

Speaker 1

Sure. One of the core assets I would spotlight is our Americas position — it's world-class. If you look across the breadth of the business, the U.S. is incredibly important. All parts of the business are present here from upstream, onshore, offshore, downstream, trading, so we've got a very significant footprint in the U.S. and a lot of our future growth is coming from the U.S. between the Paleogene and BPX. Going south from here, Bumerangue, again, a very significant discovery — 8 billion barrels in place. That will be an important part of the business as we move forward in time. And some of our core areas, the Middle East and AGT, we have some real high-quality assets there. The team has been doing tremendous work looking at assets in parts of the business that might not be core to our long-term journey and kudos to the organization for getting the Castrol deal across the line late last year; you would have seen the announcement of the Gelsenkirchen refinery divestment. Every business needs to chronically ask what are the assets that are with us for the long term and what might be of greater value in someone else's hands. That's a good chunk of the work that Carol will be doing as CEO of that portfolio going forward.

Speaker 0

We'll take the next question from Martijn Rats at Morgan Stanley.

Speaker 10

Yes. Also welcome from my part. I wanted to ask you two things. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity not to ask you about Iraq. BP is such a large operator there with the Rumaila field. I was wondering if you could give us your thoughts on, if the Strait of Hormuz were to be opened, what are we looking at in terms of the steps that need to be taken to ramp up production? What does that operationally require in the logistics of the supply chain? How much time would that take? I'd be really interested in your thoughts. The second thing is longer term: the trading business generates significant earnings on a quarterly basis. If trading grows, there's a point where it can change the nature of the company from an asset company with some trading to a trading company with assets. Given your fresh look at BP, what do you think is the natural size of the trading business within the company? At what point does it become too large perhaps?

Speaker 0

Martijn, there's definitely more than one question in there. So what I am going to be pretty deliberate. We'll take your first question on Iraq. And then I'm sure the question on trading may come back up. I do want to make sure we get through everybody. So maybe Marguerite on Iraq, and I'm sure somebody can ask about trading and ask Carol.

Speaker 1

So I think we put it in the presentation. Our total production from the Middle East is around 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. We have historically exported about 100,000 barrels per day through the Strait of Hormuz, which includes barrels from Iraq and some barrels from Abu Dhabi. It's worth noting that we've also been able to lift some Abu Dhabi production from the Mataro terminal. The Rumaila field is operated by the Rumaila operating organization. We have involvement as a technical services contractor. Questions on what it's going to take to get that back online are probably best directed to the operator. But we stand ready to work closely with the Iraqi government and with the operator to provide the advice and insights we can on getting the field back online as soon as possible once the shipping restrictions are lifted.

Speaker 0

We'll turn next to Lucas Herrmann at BNP.

Speaker 11

Marguerite and the team, best of success with everything. I want to ask a question on LNG and LNG trading, probably directed at Carol. If I go back to 2022, the company very proudly talked about the redirection of 200 or so cargoes. One of the features I understand of your contracts is 90% are written with redirection clauses. If I think about the environment we're in now, the volatility and the spreads we see today, how do I think about your ability to maximize that? To what extent is there length in the portfolio? To what extent are you starting to enact those clauses on the basis that my initial presumption was correct? Carol, any guidance would help.

Speaker 12

Lucas, you know we don't give guidance. With regards to the LNG portfolio, you're right: more than 90% of our cargoes are reoptimized prior to final delivery. We are still growing our LNG portfolio. Last year, we had just under 27 million tonnes per annum in our strategic portfolio, which is up year-on-year, and around 15 million tonnes of what we call incremental merchant volumes. So there's growth in that portfolio and great diversification. We can rewire supply into demand centers — we have supply from Trinidad, from Mauritania, Senegal, the U.S. and from Coral in Mozambique, all of which we can optimize to get LNG to customers. We continue to run the portfolio in that way, optimizing BP's assets as well as supporting customer flows and deliveries. 2022 was a little different in that TTF prices surged about 300%, whereas last quarter they were around 100%, so slightly different levels of volatility, but the fundamentals of the business are still the same.

Speaker 0

We'll move next to Alejandro at Santander.

Speaker 13

Best of luck, Marguerite, with your new challenges. My question is about where you see upside in terms of strategic delivery for the company: divestments, cost cutting, or a stronger balance sheet — in which area do you see more upside today?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Alejandro. I think there's opportunity across the breadth of the business. One thing I'm very focused on is ensuring we're capturing maximum value from all of the assets we have in our portfolio today. There are some big rocks — transactions like Castrol have a material positive impact on the balance sheet — but there's lots of work teams can do every single day to increase value for shareholders. That's working on reliability, well optimization, ensuring we have the right slates running through the refineries to get the products customers need and that offer the best value for BP shareholders. There's a tremendous amount of work to continue focusing on safe, reliable, cost-efficient operations and to relentlessly drive cost efficiency across the business, including above-field or staff functions. The trading business is world-class and you're seeing the positive impact in results. The balance sheet repair is critical. It's about making sure more of the cash we generate is available for investing in growth and returning value to shareholders. That's a critical focus for the leadership team in the coming years.

Speaker 0

We'll take the next question from Matt Lofting at JPMorgan.

Speaker 14

Marguerite, welcome to BP, wishing you the very best of luck. You spoke earlier in the video about creating durable cash flows. Could you unpack that a little in terms of how you and the team are thinking about durable cash flows over and above baseline returns and the metrics that go into that thinking?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Matt. We're all quite aware that we are in a very cyclical industry producing a commodity that has had extreme price volatility over recent years. We need to make sure the decisions we're making on the portfolio allow us to be profitable through the cycle and maintain a disciplined approach to investment through the cycle. That means when prices are high, we stay disciplined: we keep operating expenditure and capital expenditure tight. Those actions serve us well when there's a lower price environment. It means stress-testing the investment decisions we make and stress-testing the portfolio to ensure resilience to a low-price environment. Katherine, could you elaborate?

Speaker 5

I think the portfolio gives us diversification in a number of dimensions: product, geographical exposure and fiscal exposure. That diversification is part of being resilient. Another area of focus we've been working on is around the capital frame. It's important that we keep tight control on CapEx. The focus is on excellent execution against the dollars allocated to the various parts of the business.

Speaker 0

We'll take the next question from Jason Gabelman at TD Cowen.

Speaker 15

I wanted to go back to the capital structure. It seems like the balance sheet things are moving and you could not only meet the target but potentially exceed the $14 billion debt target when you account for the Castrol sale. How do you think about the right size for the balance sheet? Do you think $14 billion is the floor? Can you go below that as you think about developing some of these high-quality assets? And more broadly, should we expect a larger capital framework update now that Marguerite has taken over?

Speaker 5

Jason, in terms of capital and the $14 billion to $18 billion range, that's our primary focus right now — delivery of that target. There are various components that will deliver on that, including the closing of the Castrol transaction, which we expect to close towards the back end of 2026. We are also reducing our hybrid stack, which will lower financing costs in that dimension. On CapEx, we have set a frame of $13 billion to $15 billion for the next two years, and this year we've tightened it further to around $13 billion. That feels appropriate: the right balance for investing in core parts of the business while focusing on growing some of our future production. We'll continue to optimize the framework as we go, but right now delivery and tight control are the priorities.

Speaker 0

We will take the next question from Fergus Neve at Rothschild.

Speaker 16

I wanted to go back to exploration, which you touched on briefly earlier and is a real interest in the industry. You've announced discoveries in Egypt and Angola this year and there was a well offshore Libya being drilled when we all met for the 4Q results. Could you give us an update on exploration activity so far this year and a look ahead at any other wells to watch for as the year goes on?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Fergus. Exploration is one of the key engines to get new opportunities into the business. I'm very pleased with the success the team has had over the past year and a quarter. We've had discoveries in Egypt and Angola. Egypt is a great example of a discovery very close to existing infrastructure, so something that can be commercialized quickly. Matsola was a noncommercial discovery but it's in a large and diverse basin with a number of prospects, and we have further exploration opportunities in Libya that we will be pursuing over the coming years. Another one to watch is a well in Brazil we will be drilling ahead of doing appraisal drilling on Bumerangue. Those are some of the ones to watch in 2026.

Speaker 0

And we'll take the next question from Kim Fustier at HSBC.

Speaker 17

Katherine, you flagged that the difference between the refining indicator margin and the realized margin could be greater than $5 a barrel if current conditions persist, driven by crude differentials, product yields and freight costs. Can you give any more color on those three components? Is there anything you can do to capture more of the margin and mitigate the headwinds? For example, can you tweak refinery product yield toward more jet and diesel?

Speaker 1

Yes. I'll take that, Kim. We're trying to give the market as much help as we can on rules of thumb in these unusual circumstances regarding our basket of commodities. We've described that the refining indicator margin (RIM) is a little dislocated from realized margins right now, with realized margins below the RIM. Three contributing factors are feedstock availability, product yields, and higher freight costs. Product yields have been volatile; we are producing output that is different from standard because we're trying to create products customers need around the world and ship them to those destinations. We're currently seeing this more in Europe than anywhere else. This remains an incredibly volatile situation, and I'm not going to predict how the next couple of months will unfold. We'll give as much color as we can in the trading statement for the second quarter to describe how this has actually manifested.

Speaker 0

Super, thanks, Kim. This is the last question for now. I'll make the offer, given we have time, to come back to Martijn for his follow-up after this question. But Mark Wilson at Jefferies, you're up.

Speaker 18

BP has seen very strong exploration success in recent years and conversion of discovered contingent resource into reserves is what changes reserve life in years. BP's reserve life is lower than average. What's your view of a healthy reserve life number for a modern IOC? Does it have to be double digit, or have technology and cycle time improvements changed that number fundamentally?

Speaker 1

Thanks for the question, Mark. We've been upfront about the journey we've been on. We went through a period in the early 2020s where we were not exploring as actively, and we've made adjustments in the last couple of years to refocus on bringing new opportunities into the business. We've signaled that we want to increase our reserve bookings. Good progress was made last year. Katherine, will you remind us of the number?

Speaker 5

We achieved 90% replacement, of which about 15% was due to price. If you back out price, it was about 76%, which was a material improvement.

Speaker 1

Yes. So we are making good headway in replacing produced reserves, and we've set ourselves a target of 100% reserve replacement by 2027. The team is very focused on that as a core route for growing the upstream and continuing to refill opportunities.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Mark. Okay. We have eight minutes before the end of the call, and I'm going to turn back to Martijn for his question, which will be directed at Carol. Then we do have two follow-ups that I think will take us to the end. Martijn?

Speaker 10

Yes. Thanks, Greg. The question is simply: broadly, what do you think is the right size of the trading business within BP? It's large enough to capture opportunities but not so large that it starts to dominate other things.

Speaker 12

Thank you. The core objective of the supply, trading and shipping business is to support BP's assets. We're there to make sure our production flows, to keep our refineries supplied with the best feedstocks, and to help deliver products to the market whether that's wholesale, retail, or aviation. That's the core objective. On top of that, we build a merchant portfolio that optimizes those flows and provides capital-light opportunities to access growth markets, improving returns on refined products or upstream production. The pure trading piece is the icing on the cake; it's subject to volatility and managed very closely from a disciplined risk perspective. But really, Martijn, we're here to serve BP's assets — not to trade for trading's sake. Our primary goal is to serve BP.

Speaker 0

I will go next to Alastair, who hasn't asked a question yet. Alastair at Citi.

Speaker 19

I was actually going to ask another trading question to Carol. Within what you're prepared to talk about commercially, can you explain why the oil trading result in the quarter was exceptional and the gas trading was average? I was under the impression both commodities moved directionally in the same manner on the same external events, so why the difference?

Speaker 12

The oil markets have experienced significant structural tightness due to the conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. On the oil side, we've seen disruption on crude and refined products, including reduced refinery runs in Asia, leading to shortages in supply there that have rolled through into the West. What we've been doing on the oil side is focused on keeping production flowing, keeping refineries wet, and maintaining maximum yields where we're seeing shortages — particularly in jet and diesel. We have a global scale and diverse portfolio that lets us rewire supply and demand across geographies, and that's where you've seen value come through on the trading side. On the gas side, we haven't seen the same extent of volatility as in 2022. We're watching EU stock levels and the injection season carefully. Continued disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz have the potential to increase shortages, but our portfolio across BP and merchant has the diversification to meet supplier commitments.

Speaker 0

We'll come back to Lydia at Barclays for a follow-up.

Speaker 7

I appreciate the second chance. Can you talk about how you work together as a management team now? And Katherine, given the upstream/downstream restructuring, are there going to be more restructuring charges we should think about, or is this generally additive from where we are?

Speaker 5

We provide updates on restructuring charges and we'll do a deep dive into costs at the second quarter. We've continued to make good progress on our structural reductions; we've delivered another $300 million and are 70% delivered against the 4% to 5% target we originally set out. In terms of restructuring costs, it's important that we get the organization of the team right and we will step through that at pace but in the right way. We'll be engaging with our people first and foremost before we take external actions. Everything else will flow from how we structure the company and run our teams.

Speaker 12

From the leadership perspective, Katherine and I have been working as the management team on the turnaround of BP and you've seen delivery on performance, operational excellence and progress against our core targets. Marguerite has brought an external perspective and strong leadership, challenging where we can be better and supporting us. Feedback internally has been around increased confidence, pride in the organization and clarity. That's what you'll see from the management team going forward.

Speaker 0

Okay. I'm going to sneak in two more and then we'll aim to finish promptly. Jason Gabelman at TD Cowen, Jason.

Speaker 15

Maybe two quick clarifying questions. Is there any risk to your European refineries' access to crude, or do you feel like those are well supplied? And can you talk about how you think about Middle East investments and whether you would need a higher return given the higher risk we're seeing in the market?

Speaker 12

We're working very hard to keep our refineries supplied. We have a wide range of upstream positions and merchant positions, so we're able to diversify the slate into our refineries. We're not seeing an issue there, but the team is actively managing supply to ensure we can supply our customers.

Speaker 1

On the Middle East question: BP has been in the Middle East for over 100 years and it's a core part of the company's footprint. Everywhere we go around the world we always look at opportunities and risks. Managing a wide variety of risks is in the DNA of how we make our investment decisions.

Speaker 0

And then final quick question from Doug back at Wolfe.

Speaker 4

Let me double dip. Marguerite, welcome as well. I have a specific question. As a lifelong upstream professional coming into an organization that has just announced 8 billion barrels of oil in place with one well, are you concerned about market perceptions? Is there any scenario in your mind where there is not a development at Bumerangue?

Speaker 1

I saw the Bumerangue announcement when I was on the outside and thought, okay, this sounds big, but you always need to dig in. I've had the opportunity to sit down with the Bumerangue team, see the seismic data and the well logs, and understand the appraisal plan and development concepts being matured. There's work to do given the size and complexity of the resource, so the appraisal plan will be critical to firming up our understanding of not just fluids in place but how fluids will move through the reservoir and how we might commercialize it. I'm very impressed with the quality of the team and the leadership is moving at pace to get our best people onto this opportunity so we can move it forward appropriately. I'm excited; it's not every day you discover a field of this size and quality. Great opportunity for us and pleased with the commercial terms we have for the opportunity as well. We've got all the right ingredients.

Speaker 0

That's the end of the questions. We'll wrap up the call, but maybe if I can just hand over to Marguerite for some closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Excellent. Thanks, Craig, and thanks to everyone for joining us on the call. It's been great to have a first chat with you, and I look forward to getting to know you over the coming weeks, months and years. I'm really pleased again with the strong quarter operationally and financially and the good work we're making on delivering our strategic goals. The priority across the management team and the organization is to accelerate progress with a really tight focus on safe, reliable operations and capital discipline. As you've heard, and as Katherine has been leading, we need to have that rigorous focus on strengthening the balance sheet. That means staying disciplined in our spending and our investments, and that will allow us to build a more resilient BP. This really is a great company. We've got remarkable people, world-class assets, and I'm super excited about the opportunity ahead. Thank you all.