Ulrich Angeli

What is your industry background? 

A bit of background about myself, my name is Ulrich Angeli. For more than two decades I have worked in the procurement environment, I worked for Siemens for seven years, General Electric for five years, and now I am delighted to be a part of the bp family for the last 11 years. In my current role I lead the procurement of one of the biggest refineries in Europe which comes with a lot of tangible responsibility.

What does the overall action strategy for procurement at bp look like? 

Coming from a carbon intensive environment of integrated oil - which we have been known for, for many years - our strategy has had to adopt a sustainability approach given the developments in the environment. We did this around three years ago, reinventing bp by transforming it into an integrated energy company.

Sustainability is a critical foundation of our strategy and we have three pillars: resilient hydrocarbons, convenience and mobility; low carbon energy; and a fully integrated supply chain. In the end, you want to talk to your children and say that you have done something good for the planet. 

Could you talk to me about your sustainability efforts?

The first of three major topics is net zero across our entire operations, upstream business, and sales on an absolute basis by 2050 or sooner. However, we have of course also short term aims for 2025 as well as 2030. These were the biggest milestones which are non-negotiable for us.

The next is to install methane measurements at all our existing major oil and gas processing sites by 2023 to achieve a 50% reduction in the intensity of our operations. We are also increasing our investment significantly in renewable energies as we head towards 2025 (US$304bn a year) and by 2030 US$5bn. 

bp has in fact recently acquired four wind farms in the North Sea - a heavy investment of more than US$10bn in Germany for renewable energy. 

How are you looking to increase your supplier diversity and sustainable purchasing?

bp is continuing to increase its diversity and inclusion when it comes to suppliers. This particularly affects our US colleagues, and we are overachieving our targets in this area. We take this area very seriously.

Sustainable purchasing is also a core focus area for bp and myself specifically. We will do everything to support this in procurement which means culture and capability, procurement practices, and data insights supporting those elements. Our policies, goals, and supplier expectations also drive this. 

Specifically we are working with our suppliers to decarbonise the supply chain, as well as promote and respect human rights in the supply chain, unblock value through diversity, and encourage suppliers to use resources responsibly by embracing a circular economy. 

How critical is it that procurement not only supports the wider strategy, but accelerates it going forward?

It is more than critical, if you can imagine that. On the one hand we have our own operations. On the one hand we have our own explorations, of course, which is basically where we are responsible. The amount of investments, the amount of money which is going into the system from such a big company like bp is making the difference in terms of how the supply chain is being set up, which means we have several two digit billion investments every year, which we will put into the system.

So in future it will mean not only the price which will be decisive, it will be the safety and the quality too. So the carbon footprint that you provide as a supplier, we believe will be the key differentiator in future.

We will identify those partners who want to create a sustainable future for us in order to transform. While performing, business still needs to make money in the end, no doubt about it. But we will combine this with the sustainable needs of the future and the planet.

What advice would you have for other organisations who are going through a similar journey and maybe earlier on in that process?

Do it sooner rather than later, because this will be the future of how we are doing business here. But you have to make sure that you do not jeopardise the balance sheet, you still have to work for the shareholders, but you also have to work for the planet in future.

So make sure that this transformation is being conducted as fast as possible and make sure that this transformation is a transformation that make your money and sustains your business, but making sure that you aim for the sustainable future in where possible, start small and then step by step it will develop, but if you have the opportunity, make it a big bang, go for it.

Angeli spoke at Manufacturing LIVE 2023 delivering a keynote on bp’s sustainability transformation strategy. To watch the full keynote, click here.

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