BP 2015 Annual Report Download - page 250

and the Settlement Agreement are conditional upon each other and
neither will become effective unless there is final court approval of the
Consent Decree. The United States is expected to file a motion with the
court to enter the Consent Decree as a final settlement around the end of
March, which the court will then consider. The federal government and
the Gulf states may jointly elect to accelerate the payments under the
Consent Decree in the event of a change of control or insolvency of BP
p.l.c., and the Gulf states individually have similar acceleration rights
under the Settlement Agreement. For further details of the proposed
Consent Decree and the Settlement Agreement, see Legal proceedings
on page 238.
Greenhouse gas emissions
The disclosures in relation to greenhouse gas emissions are included in
Corporate responsibility – Environment and society on page 46.
Disclosures required under Listing Rule 9.8.4R
The information required to be disclosed by Listing Rule 9.8.4R can be
located as set out below:
Information required Page
(1) Amount of interest capitalized 128
(2) – (11) Not applicable
(12), (13) Dividend waivers 245
(14) Not applicable
Cautionary statement
In order to utilize the ‘safe harbor’ provisions of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the ‘PSLRA’), BP is providing the
following cautionary statement. This document contains certain forecasts,
projections and forward-looking statements – that is, statements related to
future, not past events – with respect to the financial condition, results of
operations and businesses of BP and certain of the plans and objectives of BP
with respect to these items. These statements may generally, but not always,
be identified by the use of words such as ‘will’, ‘expects’, ‘is expected to’,
‘aims’, ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘objective’, ‘is likely to’, ‘intends’, ‘believes’,
‘anticipates’, ‘plans’, ‘we see’ or similar expressions. In particular, among
other statements, (i) certain statements in the Chairman’s letter (pages 6-7),
the Group chief executive’s letter (pages 8-9), the Strategic report (pages 1-
54), Additional disclosures (pages 215-246) and Shareholder information
(pages 247-258), including but not limited to statements under the headings
‘Our market outlook’, ‘Our business model and strategy’, ‘Beyond 2035’, ‘Our
distinctive capabilities’ and ‘Lower oil and gas prices’ and including but not
limited to statements regarding plans and prospects relating to future value
creation, long-term growth, capital discipline and growth in sustainable free
cash flow and shareholder distributions; future dividend and optional scrip
dividend payments; expectations regarding the effective tax rate in 2016;
future working capital and cash management and the net debt ratio; our
intention to maintain a strong cash position; expected payments under
contractual and commercial commitments and purchase obligations; our aim
to rebalance our sources and uses of cash by 2017; expectations regarding our
ability to respond to the current low oil price environment; plans and
expectations regarding capital expenditure, reduction in our cost base and
cash costs, divestments and gearing in 2016 and beyond; plans to reduce our
workforce and third-party spend in the near term; expectations regarding
underlying production and capital investment in 2016; plans to invest in a
balanced range of resources and geographies; plans and expectations
regarding the settlement of legal exposures relating to the Deepwater Horizon
incident and the court approval thereof; plans regarding production and value
creation from new projects including at Shah Deniz 2 in Azerbaijan and
Khazzan in Oman; expectations regarding the future level of oil and gas prices
and industry product supply, demand and pricing in the near and long term,
demographic changes and their effect on demand for energy and our outlook
and projections of future energy trends, including the role of oil, gas and
renewables therein; plans to strengthen our portfolio of high-return and longer-
life assets and improve operations; plans to form key partnerships and
relationships with governments, customers, partners, communities, suppliers
and other institutions; expectations regarding advances in technology including
from research at the BP International Centre for Advanced Materials; plans to
undertake joint exploration with Rosneft including in East Siberia, the West
Siberian and Yenisey-Khatanga basins and the Volga-Urals region of Russia;
expectations regarding future managed base decline and the current and
future prospects of our discoveries, resources, reserves and positions; plans
and expectations regarding the timing and composition of future projects,
including with regard to the Atoll discovery in Egypt; expectations regarding
the 2016 environment for refining and refinery turnarounds; plans to dissolve
our German joint operation with Rosneft, to dispose of our Amsterdam oil
terminal and to enter into joint ventures on certain midstream assets in North
American and Australia; plans to roll out BP fuels with ACTIVE technology in
Spain and additional markets in 2016; plans and expectations with regard to
the strategic aims of Air BP and our lubricants business; expectations
regarding improvements in operating performance and efficiency in the
petrochemicals business; expectations regarding future safety performance
and plans to enhance safety, cybersecurity, compliance and risk management;
the future strategy for and planned investments in renewable energy including
investment in biobutanol; plans and expectations regarding the annual charges
of Other business and corporate for 2016, the introduction of 28 deep-sea oil
tankers and six LNG tankers into the BP-operated fleet between 2016 and
2019 and improvements in production, revenue and life of fields from
investment in equipment and maintenance; expectations regarding the actions
of contractors and partners and their terms of service; expectations regarding
future environmental regulations and policy, their impact on our business and
plans to reduce our environmental impact; our plans to work collaboratively
with government regulators in planning for oil spill response and to implement
its human rights policy; our planned disclosures regarding payments to
governments in compliance with the EU Accounting Directive; plans to reduce
activity and simplify processes in response to the current low oil price
environment; our aim to develop the capabilities of its workforce with a focus
on maintaining safe and reliable operations; our aim to maintain a diverse
workforce, create an inclusive environment and ensure equal opportunity,
including for women to represent 25% of group leaders by 2020; policies and
goals related to risk management; expectations regarding future Upstream
operations, including agreements or contracts with or relating to the Clair field,
the Gulf of Mexico, Canada and the Canadian Beaufort Sea, Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland; our joint ownership interests in exploration concessions and
plans to drill therein; plans to transfer operatorship of certain fields; plans
related to the Loyal field, the Culzean field, the North Sea and Alaska; plans
and expectations regarding our equity interests and partnerships in Angola,
Algeria, Libya and Egypt; plans and expectations regarding Western Indonesia,
China, Azerbaijan, Oman, Abu Dhabi, India, Iraq and Russia; plans and
expectations regarding our activities in Australia and Eastern Indonesia;
projections regarding oil and gas reserves, including recovery and turnover
time thereof; plans regarding compliance with environmental regulation; our
plans and expectations regarding settlement of claims related to the
Deepwater Horizon incident and related legal proceedings; and expectations
regarding legal and trial proceedings, court decisions, potential investigations
and civil actions by regulators, government entities and/or other entities or
parties, and the risks associated with such proceedings and our intentions in
respect thereof; and (ii) certain statements in Corporate governance (pages 55-
75) and the Directors’ remuneration report (pages 76-92) with regard to the
anticipated future composition of the board of directors; the board’s goals and
areas of focus stemming from the board’s annual evaluation; plans regarding
review of our governance policies in 2016, the timing of future audit contract
tendering and areas of focus for the audit committee; and goals and areas of
focus of board committees, including the Safety, ethics and environment
assurance committee, the Geopolitical committee and the Chairman’s and
nomination committees; are all forward looking in nature.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because
they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will or may occur in the
future and are outside the control of BP. Actual results may differ materially from
those expressed in such statements, depending on a variety of factors, including:
the specific factors identified in the discussions accompanying such forward-
looking statements; the receipt of relevant third party and/or regulatory
approvals; the timing and level of maintenance and/or turnaround activity; the
timing and volume of refinery additions and outages; the timing of bringing new
fields onstream; the timing, quantum and nature of certain divestments; future
levels of industry product supply, demand and pricing, including supply growth in
North America; OPEC quota restrictions; production-sharing agreements effects;
operational and safety problems; potential lapses in product quality; economic
and financial market conditions generally or in various countries and regions;
political stability and economic growth in relevant areas of the world; changes in
laws and governmental regulations; regulatory or legal actions including the
types of enforcement action pursued and the nature of remedies sought or
imposed; the actions of prosecutors, regulatory authorities and courts; the timing
and amount of future payments relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; exchange
rate fluctuations; development and use of new technology; recruitment and
retention of a skilled workforce; the success or otherwise of partnering; the
actions of competitors, trading partners, contractors, subcontractors, creditors,
rating agencies and others; our access to future credit resources; business
disruption and crisis management; the impact on our reputation of ethical
misconduct and non-compliance with regulatory obligations; trading losses;
major uninsured losses; decisions by Rosneft’s management and board of
directors; the actions of contractors; natural disasters and adverse weather
conditions; changes in public expectations and other changes to business
conditions; wars and acts of terrorism; cyberattacks or sabotage; and other
factors discussed elsewhere in this report including under Risk factors (pages 53-
54). In addition to factors set forth elsewhere in this report, those set out above
are important factors, although not exhaustive, that may cause actual results and
developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements.
Statements regarding competitive position
Statements referring to our competitive position are based on the company’s
belief and, in some cases, rely on a range of sources, including investment
analysts’ reports, independent market studies and our internal assessments
of market share based on publicly available information about the financial
results and performance of market participants.
246 BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2015