On February 2, 2021, British Petroleum (BP) announced its fourth quarter and full year 2020 financial reports.
The financial report shows that in 2020, the company's basic replacement cost profit will be a loss of 5.69 billion U.S. dollars, and a profit of 99.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. The company's net loss attributable to shareholders of the company last year was US$20.305 billion (approximately RMB 131.1 billion). Net profit in 2019 was US$4.026 billion. This is the first full-year loss for BP in the past ten years.
On February 2, 2021, Exxon Mobil Corporation announced its fourth quarter and full year financial results. The financial report shows that under the influence of the impact of the new crown epidemic on energy prices, a loss of 22 billion U.S. dollars (equivalent to about 144.6 billion yuan) in 2020, while the previous year's profit exceeded 14 billion U.S. dollars. This is the company's first annual loss recorded in at least 40 years.
The company announced that it expects a loss of US$20.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, if diluted, a loss of US$4.70 per share. Capital and exploration expenditures in the fourth quarter were US$4.8 billion, and expenditures for the whole year were US$21.4 billion, a decrease of US$9.8 billion from the same period last year.
Data show that Exxon Mobil's full-year net loss of 22.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, and 2019 full-year profit of 14.34 billion U.S. dollars. This is the company's first annual loss in at least 40 years.
Both companies believe that the new crown epidemic is the main reason for the decline in performance. BP CEO Bernard Looney said: “The pain and grief caused by COVID-19 will be remembered forever in 2020. Life is lost – livelihoods are destroyed. Our sector has also been hit hard. Road and air travel has decreased, oil demand, prices And profits are also reduced."
Despite this, the two giants are still confident about the future.
Darren Woods, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, said: "In the past year, ExxonMobil has experienced the most challenging market environment, although the impact of the pandemic has severely affected our 2020 Annual performance, but our previous strategic planning and restructuring have allowed us to respond decisively to permanently improve the cost structure, increase the efficiency of various business units, and grow the company. It is expected that by 2023, relative to 2019, these Improvements will save $6 billion in structural costs each year."
Bernard Looney also said: "This is also a crucial year for the company. We launched our net zero ambitions, set a new strategy to become an integrated energy company, and created an offshore wind power business in the United States. We began to reshape bp – Approximately 10,000 people left the company. We strengthened our finances – eliminated costs and ended large divestments. Through all of this, the company’s basic operations remained safe (this was one of our safest years), and reliable, Significant new projects are also live. I thank our team for their commitment to providing the energy the world needs, and thank us for the support we have received from investors and the communities in which we work. We expect all of us to have a much better life in 2021 ".
