London, March 20, 2026, 13:02 GMT
BP’s London-listed shares were down about 3% at 565.8 pence in delayed trade on Friday, giving back part of the previous session’s jump to a 52-week high as investors weighed the oil major’s German refinery sale against a softer London market. 1
The move matters because BP is trying to simplify its portfolio and shore up the balance sheet before Meg O’Neill takes over as chief executive in April. The Gelsenkirchen sale pushed announced or completed disposals past $11 billion of a $20 billion target for 2027 and lifted BP’s recurring cost-cut goal to $6.5 billion-$7.5 billion. 2
BP said the deal should remove about $1 billion of operating costs tied to the site. The refinery processes about 12 million metric tons of crude a year, and around 1,800 employees are expected to join Klesch when the transaction closes in the second half of 2026. “With this transaction, we are strengthening our balance sheet,” interim CEO Carol Howle said. 3
That news helped drive the stock up 4.93% to 583.2 pence on Thursday, outpacing a falling FTSE 100 and setting a fresh 52-week high. Trading volume was far above the 50-day average. 4
Oil is still doing part of the work. Brent crude rose $1.67 to $110.32 a barrel by 1030 GMT on Friday as the Iran war kept supply fears alive despite Western efforts to secure shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said “damage has been done to production” and the market remained tight. 5
But higher crude is feeding inflation worries as much as it is helping producers. London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.1% by 1039 GMT, energy shares slipped 0.9%, and traders were pricing roughly a 60% chance of a Bank of England rate rise by April after the central bank held rates at 3.75% and warned on price risks. 6
BP also has meaningful exposure to the region behind the current shock. Reuters calculations based on annual reports show about 22% of BP’s 2025 oil and gas output came from the Middle East, roughly the same share as Eni and about double Shell’s 11%, though BP has no refineries there. 7
Barclays analyst Lydia Rainforth estimated the Gelsenkirchen transaction could remove $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion of liabilities from BP’s books, on top of the operating-cost savings flagged by the company. 2
There are still loose ends. The German sale needs regulatory and government approval, and more than 800 union workers began picketing outside BP’s 440,000-barrel-per-day Whiting refinery in Indiana on Thursday after the company locked them out during contract talks. BP said it did not expect output to be affected. 3
That leaves BP sitting between two forces: firmer oil prices that can support earnings and a broader market that is starting to price in higher rates and slower growth. As Schroders economist David Rees put it, if energy prices stay “higher for longer”, the wider washout could become “more painful”. 8
