The British oil and gas company BP suffered a loss of USD 20.3 billion in COVID-19 year 2020. The company suffered, inter alia, from lower oil and gas prices, which were the result of lower demand due to the crisis. The result was also negatively affected by depreciation.

In many countries travel restrictions have been imposed to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. That puts pressure on fuel sales. According to BP, the result was also affected by a ‘significantly weaker’ result in gas trade and increased depreciation on exploration. These costs were partly offset by lower taxes.

In the closing quarter of last year, BP managed to put a profit of 1.4 billion dollars in the books, helped by the sale of parts. The so-called adjusted profit for replacement costs, the main measure of the result for BP, came to 115 million dollars. A year earlier, this result was nearly $ 2.6 billion.

BP’s debt decreased by $ 1.4 billion to $ 39 billion by the end of 2020. At the same time, BP warned that the debt would rise again in the first half of this year. This is mainly due to the costs that BP for severance pay for staff, and an annual payment made by the BP has to pay in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.