BP, as we all know it, was sent down the "beyond petroleum" road a decade ago by its former chairman, the unusual Lord Browne.
Few outsiders in the oil patch, and not many inside BP, had kind words for the attempt to re-brand a century-old business with a trendy, and environmentally-sensitive, slogan.
Browne, who left BP under somewhat of a cloud, believed a new era of business was on the way in which companies would be judged for their caring approach to employees, customers, and the world in general.
The major problem with that "let's love everyone" approach is that no one appears to have asked the owners of BP, the shareholders, what they thought about diverting billions of dollars into delightfully green adventures.
Neither does anyone appear to have asked investors, especially the big institutions what they thought about Browne's rejection of BP's involvement in controversial projects such as tar sands in Canada.
Well, Browne has gone and so has any pretence at BP that the company's future lies beyond petroleum.
The new boy in charge, Tony Hayward, is shaping as a "back to the future" man, with the fundamentals of oil and gas exploration as his driving interest, and growth in production and refining of whatever he can get his hands on (including tar sands) as the way to make money.
The Slug, like everyone else he knows in the petroleum business, is not surprised by Hayward's back to basics approach, though he is somewhat surprised by the tough line being talked, if not yet taken.
Word from London is that Browne's baby, which is BP's renewables and alternative fuels project, is on a knife edge. It might survive as a BP business, but the betting is that it will be sold and-or scaled back to become a minor distraction for when government and environmentalists come calling.
Hayward has not gone as far as to say renewables are in the crapper, but he's jolly close judging by a report late last week in The Times newspaper.
According to City analysts in London Hayward told them that he wants to "realise value" from BP's "loss-making" investment in renewables.
BP's is reported to value its Alternative Energy unit, which incorporates the company's investment in wind power, hydrogen, bio-mass and solar cells, at between $US5-7 billion.
The Slug, who has a curiously old-fashioned approach to business, wonders how any business which is said in one breath to be loss making can then, in the next breath, be said to have a value of more than $US5 billion.
As far as this ancient scribbler is concerned any business which runs at a loss is worth zilch. In fact, you might even have to pay someone to take it off your hands.
Tea-leaf readers will be having a field day with Hayward's comments about BP's alternative adventures.
Optimists will be seeing the start of an attempt to elevate the non-oil operation into something more substantial which might have a chance to become a serious business.
Pessimists will be reading Hayward's words and seeing an axe poised over alternatives as he re-directs the cash currently being burned on solar cells and hydrogen power into something with more immediate potential to make a profit, such as politically incorrect tar sands.
Crystallising value is one of the cute descriptions of what Hayward is about to do to alternatives.
Cutting his losses is The Slug's descriptions.
Oh, and while he's swinging the axe, would someone also ask that he drop that stupid Beyond Petroleum slogan; it is meaningless drivel conceived by a public relations consultant which is nothing but demeaning to a great business such as British Petroleum.
