BP 2017 net profit soars to $3.4B

LONDON: Energy giant British Petroleum’s (BP) net profits last year rocketed to almost $3.4 billion (2.7 billion euros), boosted mostly by a recovery in the crude oil market.

Earnings after taxation for the full year compared with $115 million in 2016, BP said in a statement on Tuesday.

oil prices,” it added.

The news came one week after AngloDutch rival Royal Dutch Shell announced - gized by rising oil and gas prices.

BP’s underlying replacement- cost the value of crude oil inventories, more than doubled to $6.2 billion last year.

The company’s upstream business, made up of exploration and production, saw its output leap 12 percent to 2.47 million barrels of oil equivalent per day— the highest level since the year of the disaster.

The performance was also lifted by solid earnings at its downstream division that com

It was hit by an additional $3.18 billion of Gulf-related costs in 2017. That brought total costs linked to the disas to businesses—to $65.8 billion.

“2017 was one of the strongest years Dudley said.

- cially, with very strong earnings in the downstream, upstream production up 12 percent,

“And we did all this while maintaining safe and reliable operations,” the company chief said.

year plan with real momentum, increasingly confident that we can continue to deliver growth across our business, improving cash flows and returns for shareholders out to 2021 and beyond,” he added.

The results came one year after BP - turning the group to growth, as it continues to recover from the devastating 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We had strong delivery and growth across

“The full-year underlying result was - he added.

BP saw its fortunes and reputation ravaged by the oil spill disaster eight years ago, caused by an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that the company leased.