BP links bonus pay to safety
FOURTH?quarter bonuses for staff at embattled oil major BP will be based entirely on safety, chief executive Bob Dudley has said.
Dudley
has sent an email to all staff members saying their performance in terms of safety and risk management would be the only factor used to work out bonuses.
“We are taking this step in order to be absolutely clear that safety, compliance and operational risk management is BP’s number one priority, well ahead of all other priorities,” he added.
Meanwhile, BP’s multi-billion dollar asset sale continued yesterday as it offloaded its oil and gas fields in Vietnam and Venezuela to its Russian joint venture TNK-BP for $1.8bn (£1.13bn).
BP said yesterday the assets represented reserves of 270m barrels of oil equivalent (boe), with production of 40,000 boe per day. The sale allows TNK-BP to expand beyond its traditional Russian base.
“The acquisitions in Venezuela and Vietnam mark a milestone in TNK-BP’s strategic expansion in the global energy market,” said Mikhail Fridman, TNK-BP executive chairman and one of the four Russia-connected billionaires who own the other 50 per cent of TNK-BP.
Dudley, who replaced Tony Hayward after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said: “Today’s agreement is further evidence of the rapid progress BP is making towards the divestment target we set out in July.”
The company said in July it aims to raise up to $30bn in cash over the next 18 months to help pay for the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in April.
BP had already offloaded more than $11.5bn of assets before yesterday’s deal, the biggest of which was the sale of $7bn of North American assets to Apache Corp late last month.