BP PLC, London, expects to contribute $500 million to its worldwide pension plans this year, according to its annual report. It contributed $524 million to its U.K. pension plan and $97 million to its U.S. pension plan in 2007, and $438 million and $181 million, respectively, in 2006. A similar breakout for this year wasn’t available from BP.
The U.K. plan had $31.62 billion in assets and $23.93 billion in liabilities at year-end, while the U.S. plan had $8.05 billion in assets and $7.41 billion in liabilities. BP raised its expected long-term investment return on its U.K. pension fund to 7.3% from 7%, while keeping the assumption for its U.S. pension fund at 8%.
