Shareholders’ chance to gauge performance of two industry giants

Britain’s two biggest oil companies will update shareholders next week amid a low oil price and a race to reduce emissions.

Investors will be leafing through B P ’s results tomorrow, while Shell will present how its third quarter went two days later.

Shares in both have cratered during 2020, as oil prices fell to record lows at one point at the start of the pandemic.

Mo n t h s l a t e r, both Shell and BP wrote off billions of dollars-worth of assets after reducing the book value of the oil they still have in the ground.

“The focus (for BP) is now on getting the most out of its remaining oil fields while investing in a low carbon future, and given the rather precarious state of the balance sheet, it’s a very tricky manoeuvre to pull o f f ,” said Susannah S t r e e t e r, a senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Chief executive Bernard Looney set out his views on climate change as he took the reins in February, promising to make the company ne t- zero by mid-century.

He fleshed out his ideas in August when the company presented its most recent set of financial results and cut its dividend for the first time in a decade.

The company will cut its oil and gas production by 40% before 2030 and invest $ 5 billion a year (£ 3.8bn) in low- carbon projects as it tries to reposition from a dirty fuel company.

Shell was also forced to cut dividends, for the first time since the end of the Second World War, earlier this year.

The chief executive of BP, Bernard Looney.