NEWS April 27 2001

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www.greenpeace.org.uk

www.freetibet.org
 Beyond Parody

The breathtaking hypocrisy of BP’s £400m ‘Beyond Petroleum’ brand makeover came back to haunt them last week when their AGM was dominated by questioning from Greenpeace, wanting to know exactly when and how the oil monster intends to go ‘beyond petroleum’. While only the most naïve members of the green movement had allowed themselves to believe the hype, even when accompanied by the sparkly new logo (startlingly similar to the Green Party logo – odd, that), it was shocking to see BP’s rapid retreat when their bluff was called. In his speech to the AGM, CEO John Browne backtracked to admit the slogan meant they weren’t even considering giving up oil, ‘Beyond Petroleum just means we are giving up the old mindset, the old thinking that oil companies had to be dirty, secretive and arrogant.’ If anyone else, like us, has noticed few signs of BP becoming cleaner, more open and more humble we can only assume the ‘new thinking’ says oil companies are dirty, secretive and arrogant because they want to be. The Greenpeace motion gained only 7.4% of the vote, but the AGM action succeeded in taking much of the gloss off BP’s greenwash.

Also present at the AGM were representatives of the Free Tibet Campaign, pushing a motion for BP to disinvent from Chinese oil company PetroChina, which is building a 950km pipeline to take natural gas from the Tsaidam Basin in Tibet to Gansu province in China. Tibet campaigners, including the government-in-exile, oppose the pipeline on the grounds that it will intensify Chinese control of Tibet, bring in more Chinese settlers and damage the Tibetan environment without benefiting the local people.

BP is not directly involved in the pipeline, but its £390m stake in PetroChina makes it the Chinese company’s largest foreign investor, so by not opposing the pipeline it becomes complicit in abuses around it. Having recently won the contract to build a £120m gas terminal at Guangdong in southern China may have influenced their decision.

BP strenuously opposed both the Greenpeace and Free Tibet Campaign motions, and had previously changed the rules for AGM motions so that they would have needed 75% of the vote to pass. In the event the Tibet motion gained 5% of the vote and probably around 75% of the press coverage.