BP is assessing what to do with its Brazilian biofuels business, and a sale is one of the possibilities, according to people familiar with the talks. The review comes as Chief Executive Officer Meg O'Neill speeds up efforts to streamline the portfolio and steer investment toward areas BP considers central to its future. Discussions are still early and there is no firm decision to proceed. A company representative declined to comment.
In 2024, BP took control after agreeing to pay $1.4 billion, including debt, to acquire Bunge Global SA's last 50% interest in the partners' Brazilian sugar-and-ethanol joint venture. At the time, BP pitched the platform as scalable and cost competitive, and said it planned to expand into ethanol, sustainable aviation fuel and biogas. Since then, BP has rethought spending outside traditional oil and gas, pulling back on plans for new lower‑carbon projects and related investments while pursuing selective disposals.
A potential sale would align with BP's broader push to simplify, raise cash for oil and gas, and reduce leverage. The company aims to sell roughly $20 billion of assets by 2027 to bring down debt, lower costs and improve returns, following a strategy reset laid out last year by then‑CEO Murray Auchincloss that moved away from the faster‑paced energy transition approach under Bernard Looney.
BP's recent moves include a December agreement to sell 65% of Castrol, its lubricants business, to Stonepeak while keeping 35%, and closing the sale of the Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany to Klesch Group in the summer. BP has also been working on a sale of Lightsource, its solar and battery unit. In 2024, BP bought the remaining stake in Lightsource and soon after began preparing to divest it, and Petrobras this year acquired a 49.99% interest in Lightsource's Brazilian subsidiary.
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Selling the Brazilian biofuels operation would add another chunk of cash for BP to put toward debt reduction and projects where it believes returns are stronger, notably in oil and gas. If the company keeps leaning into that playbook, expect capital to tilt further toward fewer, higher‑return assets and away from lower‑carbon bets that no longer clear BP's bar.
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