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BP is cutting 4,700 jobs, or just over 5 per cent of its workforce, as chief executive Murray Auchincloss tries to save costs and revive a share price that has lagged behind rivals over the past year.

The UK oil major is also reducing the number of contractors it uses by 3,000 this year, adding that 2,600 of those had already departed, according to a memo sent to staff on Thursday by Auchincloss.

In the memo, Auchincloss said BP was making “strong progress” in its attempt to be a “simpler, more focused, higher-value company”.

Auchincloss, who marks his first year as permanent chief executive on Friday, has come under mounting pressure from shareholders after several quarters of disappointing results.

Auchincloss, who was first took the top job on a temporary basis in September, 2023 following the departure of Bernard Looney, last year announced a two-year plan to save $2bn of costs.

In the memo, the 54-year-old Canadian said BP had “stopped or paused 30 projects since June” to streamline its focus, and also intended to expand its operations in lower-cost hubs such as India.

Last year the company opened a 400-person technical centre in Pune, near Mumbai, India, to provide engineering, data and subsurface services.

“We are uniquely positioned to grow value through the energy transition. But that doesn’t give us an automatic right to win. We have to keep improving our competitiveness and moving at the pace of our customers and society,” Auchincloss said.

BP shares rose nearly 2 per cent following the news, but have fallen 5 per cent since Auchincloss took the reins of the company on a permanent basis. The share price has lagged behind that of rivals, including Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron.

BP’s workforce has swelled to roughly 90,000 people, with roughly 20,000 of those joining after it acquired the TravelCenters of America network of nearly 300 filling stations in 2023.

BP also bought out its joint venture partners in solar business Lightsource BP and Bunge Bioenergia last year, moves that added more staff.

This week BP postponed an event for investors in February so Auchincloss could recuperate from a “planned medical procedure”.

The company is due to report its fourth-quarter earnings on February 11.

In recent weeks, analysts have cut their estimates for BP’s fourth-quarter profit after the company signalled trading in the period was weaker than it had expected.

The carpeted floor of the main theater at Vidiots is drizzled with popcorn as dozens of children and their families crowd around a puppet show. Show tunes blast over the speaker as a puppet named Yellow Cat (who is, indeed, a yellow cat) prances and twirls across the floor.

Vidiots is a historic theater in northeast Los Angeles, a few miles from where fires are still burning in the Altadena and Pasadena neighborhoods. Vidiots joined forces with the Bob Baker Marionette Theater nearby to give families and parents a way to take their minds off the devastation.

Diego Montoya shows off a marionette puppet.

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“The show was planned as a way to give families some relief, an opportunity to do something that’s fun and silly. To sit back and get away from the chaos of the world right now,” says Yellow Cat’s puppet master, Diego Montoya. Vidiots also screened movies and gave out pajamas and coloring books. Many of the families at the free event earlier this week are victims of the fire in one way or another — some have lost homes, others have children who have lost schools.

Three-year-old Leo Bane is one of the spectators of the puppet show. Part of his school burned down in the Eaton Fire, so this event is a welcome distraction for Leo and his mother, Tania Verafield.

“I think this is the only two hours I haven’t been constantly checking my phone and trying to get updates and I feel just some relief at watching my son giggle [as he watches] these amazing puppets,” says Verafield.

Iris Wong (left) sits with her mothe, Tina Yen, and Tania Verafield holds her son, Leo Bane, as they watch the show.

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Schools in the Pasadena and Altadena areas are largely closed as the fires continue to burn. The YMCA and local government are offering child care, but slots are filling up fast, and it’s falling on many families to look after their young ones. Many told me they’re relying on each other to get through this time.

“People don’t know LA. It’s an amazing community,” says Ursula Knudsen. Both of her children lost their school campuses to the fire, and her younger daughter saw her school in flames as she evacuated with her father. Their home was also severely damaged.

“It’s not like Altadena needed a tragedy to come together as a community. That’s what’s wild. It’s only showing up 100 times more than it already was,” Knudsen says.

Buster Balloon shows off a puppet to children at the Vidiots theater.

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Coming to this free event with puppets, movies, and even a 6-foot-tall roving giraffe mascot has brought a moment of relief for Knudsen and her friend, Kate Mallor, whose children’s schools were also severely damaged by the fire. “It’s been so beautiful to see other moms here and to see our classmates and be able to hug,” says Mallor.

The puppet show in the main theater draws to a close with a grand finale. Yellow Cat is dancing to Barbra Streisand’s “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and that’s no coincidence, says Montoya, the puppeteer.

“It’s got a great message, you know, ‘Don’t rain on my parade, I’m going to have fun no matter what,’” Montoya says. “‘I’m going to do what brings me joy.’”

People walk by the exterior of Vidiots, which has a sign that says, “Here for you LA.”

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The California Newsroom is following the extreme weather from across the region. Click through to LAist’s coverage for the latest.

The tens of thousands of people displaced by the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area are increasingly anxious to know when they can return home — or to what remains of their properties.

Officials say crews are working to reopen closed areas, snuffing out hot spots and clearing hazardous debris, but no timeline has been announced for lifting the evacuation orders.

Experts have warned that it could take weeks before people can return to the hardest-hit neighborhoods because of the amount of work needed to ensure the safety of residents.

Firefighters are still trying to contain the Palisades and Eaton fires, the biggest ones in the Los Angeles region, a prerequisite to allowing people to return. Both remained largely out of control on Wednesday evening, though their growth had slowed.

Captain Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department said the timeline for people returning to their neighborhoods can vary. It depends on the extent of the damage, which needs to be mapped and carefully assessed in every impacted community, he added. There is also the threat of hazardous materials, such as asbestos and chemicals.

“We want people to have realistic expectations,” Mr. Scott said.

It took weeks in the aftermath of some previous destructive blazes for people to return. In 2018, the Camp fire destroyed most of Paradise in Northern California and killed 85 people. The final evacuation orders in that town were lifted more than a month after the fire started.

Similarly, after a devastating fire in Lahaina on the island of Maui killed more than 100 people in 2023, it was nearly two months before the first of the thousands of displaced residents could return to their properties.

The suppression of the fire is only one step in the process, according to fire officials. There are yet more safety and infrastructure issues to tackle. Workers need to clear and replace downed power lines, stabilize partially collapsed buildings and remove toxic ash from the ground.

“That’s why the orders are still in place,” said David Acuna, a battalion chief with Cal Fire. “It’s not just about the fire. There are all these other elements to address.”

The grim search for human remains has further complicated efforts to clear neighborhoods. Officials are using cadaver dogs to comb through the thousands of structures damaged or destroyed in the fires to locate remains.

“We have people literally looking for the remains of your neighbors,” Sheriff Robert Luna of Los Angeles County said at a news conference on Monday. “Please be patient with us.”

Even for those whose homes survive, the lifting of evacuation orders does not necessarily mean they can return to live in them right away, warned Michael Wara, a climate policy expert at Stanford University.

“There’s going to be smoke damage,” he said. “There’s going to be the fact that you don’t have utilities.”

In Pacific Palisades, the recovery process was underway in its incinerated downtown. The air buzzed with the sound of jackhammers, bulldozers and tree shredders. Workers cleared debris, pulled down charred utility poles and ground up the skeletal limbs of burned eucalyptus trees.

Ali Sharifi managed to inspect his lower Palisades home on Tuesday. Aside from a burned backyard fence, it was intact. Yet the destruction around it, including charred schools, churches and grocery stores, gave him second thoughts about returning.

“Who wants to live in a ghost town?” Mr. Sharifi said.

Erica Fischer, an associate professor at Oregon State University who studied the aftermath of the Camp fire, said that a fast recovery is not always a good one, especially if it means rebuilding in ways that contributed to the disaster.

Of the ongoing evacuation orders in California, she said, “I know it’s not convenient, and it’s disruptive, but it keeps people out of harm’s way.”