The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Output increase helps profits to surge at BP
Investment: Final development decisions taken on North Sea fields
Rising prices and oil production helped boost pre-tax earnings at BP by over a billion pounds in the first quarter of 2018.
The energy giant reported a pre-tax profit of £2.8bn in the first three months of the year, up from £1.5bn in the same period in 2017.
The company also pointed to the improvement in its ket measure – underlying replacement cost profit – which rose 71% on a year earlier to £1.8bn.
BP said its upstream business recorded its strongest quarterly result since 2014. Overall oil and gas production was 6% higher than Q1 of 2017, with 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent recovered each day.
The quarter also saw BP make final investment decisions on four new projects including the Alligin and Vorlich fields in the North Sea.
However, the group expects production in the second quarter to be lower as a result of the Abu Dhabi offshore concession, as well as seasonal turnaround and maintenance activity.
“We have delivered another strong set of results,” group chief executive Bob Dudley said. “Our safe and reliable operations and strong financial delivery have continued into 2018.
“Underlying profit was up 23% on the previous quarter and was our best quarterly result in three years.
“With rising output from our new major projects and excellent reliability, Upstream production was 9% higher than a year earlier.
“Moving through 2018 we’re determined to keep delivering our operational targets and maintaining capital discipline while growing cashflow and returns.”
The results showed BP also made a further £1.1bn provision in the period in relation to the 2012 Gulf of Mexico disaster, with total outlays for 2018 expected to be in the order of £2.1bn this year.