Mind the divestment gap

Oil and gas majors are setting increasingly ambitious divestment targets, despite volatile market conditions and questions over the size of the buyer pool

Cash from divestment forms a major part of oil majors' projected revenue streams , as well as more focused Opex spending, going into the 2020s. Yet despite an uptick in activity—and, arguably, bargain-basement prices—firms appear to be struggling to offload certain "non-core" assets In its annual report for 2018, BP noted that total divestment proceeds reached $2.9bn, against a target of $3bn for the year; but going forward it expects this to ramp up to more than $10bn over the next two years. The phrase "supported by divestment proceeds" is repeated several times in the report as a basis for meeting objectives such as reduced debt, echoing the sentiment in other majors' annual reports.