Don’t condemn BP’s oil gusher. Polluter or not, this is a company to be proud of

New accounting rules are apparently playing havoc with the way oil companies report their profits, yet however damaging they might be to the bottom line, they are as nothing compared to what would happen if the New Economics Foundation got its way.

By adjusting the

Back in the real world, BP is in fact throwing off cash in quantities that even Lord Browne of Madingley, the chief executive, would scarcely have believed possible just a few years back – so much so that he feels confident enough to promise $50bn of dividends and share buy-backs over the next three years if the oil price averages an undemanding $41 a barrel, and even more – $65bn – if the price stays above $60.

So here are two very different views of BP. One paints BP as a polluter, the other as a vital cash cow at the heart of the British economy. According to the NEF, BP accounts for some 6 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, or more than double the UK’s total climate change effect. I’ve no idea how accurate the NEF’s figures are – they sound exaggerated to me – yet whatever the numbers, if the greenhouse gases emitted by burning what BP extracts from the ground were charged for their environmental cost, profits would evaporate. Then again, if oil producers were charged in this way, the oil price would rise to compensate, so it’s a somewhat ridiculous argument.

The Independent