British energy giant BP is reportedly in advanced talks to sell its solar business, Lightsource, to a consortium backed by Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, as the venture sharpens its focus further on oil and gas to bolster returns.
Green energy-focused private equity firm Qualitas Energy and Wren House, the infrastructure arm of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority, have teamed up for the bid, claimed a report from the Financial Times (FT).
BP has been doubling down on efforts to simplify its operations, while refocusing on traditional oil and gas to reduce debt, boost profit and return on investment after a miscalculated foray into renewables under Bernard Looney in 2020, under which the company promised to reduce its oil and gas production by 40% by 2030 and aimed for zero net emissions by 2050.
With new CEO Meg O’Neill firmly taking over the proceedings, BP has been having a busy July in terms of making its organization lean. Last week, it signed an agreement to sell its minority interests in more than 10 companies in its venture arm, under its USD 20 billion divestment plan.
BP’s Lightsource, which was central to a hefty impairment charge flagged in early 2026, has already spun off its offshore wind business, apart from abandoning plans to build biofuels and hydrogen plants in Amsterdam, Australia, and the United Kingdom, respectively.
The energy major will also be selling its Austrian mobility, convenience, and electric vehicle (EV) charging businesses to Volenergy AG. The move will be the fourth in line, after sales of similar businesses in the Netherlands in 2025, Turkey in 2024, and Switzerland in 2022.
The agreement with Volenergy AG, expected to be completed by the 2026 end, includes 250 BP-branded retail sites as well as electric vehicle charging infrastructure. BP will sell 100% of its shares in BP Retail Austria GmbH (subject to regulatory approvals) and its shares in three non-operated joint ventures.
Volenergy AG operates the largest network of fuel stations in Switzerland, with more than 730 locations. It acquired BP’s Swiss retail network in 2022.
O’Neill, who started in the top job in April, said a couple of weeks back that BP needs to prioritize financial discipline by simplifying its portfolio, cutting costs, and tightening capital spending, while refocusing on its core oil and gas investments.
The British major’s venturing arm, BP Ventures, which began in 2007, had 27 companies in its portfolio till the divestment took the fifth gear in July. These included projects related to artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles, and hydrogen.
Since O’Neill has taken over BP’s leadership reins, the energy major has also gone through the unpleasant removal of its chair, Albert Manifold, over bullying allegations. Amid the instability in its board, the venture is currently working to rebuild investor trust by cutting costs and debt.
The CEO reportedly wants to be more selective in its investment decisions as it works through its strategy reset after the painful renewables experiment.
“We need to be deliberate about where we invest and where we don’t. We need to make fewer, better choices and hold ourselves to account,” O’Neill said in a LinkedIn post on the 100th day of her being in the role.
She has laid out three priorities to make BP simpler and more valuable: operational excellence, improved accountability, and strong discipline in costs, cash, and capital.
BP’s reorganization into two business segments, upstream and downstream, from three, went into effect at the start of this month. As per O’Neill, the move will help reduce complexity at the energy major, with trading connecting the upstream and downstream businesses.
The current divestment strategy involves prioritizing debt reduction in order to improve cash flow and reshape the overall portfolio further.
The start of O’Neill’s tenure also coincided with the Iran war, which has disrupted the global energy market with little shipping traffic going through the crucial maritime chokehold called the Strait of Hormuz. The crisis, however, helped boost BP’s results in the first quarter, with profit more than doubling to USD 3.2 billion.
“BP’s trading and shipping teams worked with its refining unit to deliver an extra 50 million liters of diesel from the Cherry Point refinery in Washington state to Sydney to help increase supplies in Australia,” O’Neill said on LinkedIn.
The energy major’s Castellon refinery in Spain has also increased jet fuel output by 30% ahead of Europe’s summer travel season in response to the crisis.