Angélica Ruiz, Senior Vice President Latin America & Head of Country Mexico, BP
BP is working hard to transform from being heavily focused on oil production into an integrated energy company.
What were some of your milestones in 2020?
2020 was a complex year for everyone, and COVID-19 has affected many people and businesses. We knew it was essential for us to care for our people, while also collaborating with Mexico to understand the problem we were facing and trying to be part of the solution. In addition, we saw a decline in global oil prices in 2020. However, we have a long-term strategy and understand that the economy goes in cycles. BP’s main achievement was implementing a change in its strategy. We launched the strategy change in February, and the top management changed; a new CEO was appointed. In August 2020, we announced a second organizational change. The goal of all this organizational revamp was to address this crisis with a leadership that would be an example, while defining the pillars of our strategy for 2021.
Some industry leaders request more regulatory certainty in Mexico, while some want more clarity from the government. What is your take?
The government has been in office for the last two years. Our strategy is from 2020 to 2050. We have some objectives that are extremely clear for the coming decades. We see the entry of new technologies that will replace the hydrocarbons industry. As a result, all our projections through to 2050 is that oil will decline, while gas will be a transitory kind of fuel. That being said, we propose a transformational change for the next 30 years. In that time period, we will focus on the very long-term fundamentals. We want to transform as an energy company, and we are building all the capacities to be ready to cope with future changes. There is a change in the entire oil and gas business. Most of our investments through 2050 will be in renewable energy projects. We will carry out those investments in the most certain and stable regulatory environments, where there are strong and autonomous regulatory bodies. We respect what the Mexican government is doing; we are observing the conditions in the market to take the best decisions. So far we have seen a lot of respect from the Mexican authorities for our investments.
What role will Mexico play in BP’s plans for the future?
Mexico will be part of our exploration activities. We have three offshore fields: two in deep-water and one in shallow water. We also have an alliance with Panamerican, the second-largest company in Mexico producing hydrocarbons after ENI. We are extremely proud of what Panamerican is doing. We operate through non-operating JVs as well as operating JVs. We have a highly relevant presence in upstream. As for the midstream sector, we are also important players in the gas industry; we transport 25% in the industrial gas market. We are market leaders, and we are an important company that works alongside CENAGAS. Castrol is an important company in which we are present, which has 12% participation in the market. In downstream, we are leaders in every major, and we will continue in this business. We are clearly in every layer of the value chain in Mexico. At a global level, we will increase our low-carbon investments by eight times for 2025 and by 10 times through 2030. The next goal is to establish alliances with cities and key industries to reach their goals of zero emissions. The next objective is to have daily transactions with 20 million customers, which is more than twice what we currently have. Another goal is to develop around 50GW of net generation capacity from renewable energy including green hydrogen, solar, and wind power generation units. That’s 20-times more than our current levels. We also want to have 70,000 stations for electric vehicles in comparison to the 6,000 that we currently have. All this will be gradually implemented in Latin America. Meanwhile, we want to reduce our operative emissions by 30% and 50%.