The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
BP’ s profits double on higher oil prices Energy: Firm awaits first oil from project west of Shetland
Profits more than doubled at BP in the third quarter as the UK energy major prepares to celebrate first oil from a mega-project west of Shetland.
Chief financial officer Brian Gilvary said Clair Ridge was “almost complete and ready to be commissioned” in the fourth quarter.
The £4.5 billion project is targeting 640 million barrels of oil. BP intends to complete the purchase of a 16.5% stake in Clair from ConocoPhillips later this year, taking its total equity in the field to 45.1%.
And the company expects to wrap up its £8bn acquisition of BHP Billiton’s US onshore oil and gas business today.
Mr Gilvary said BP’s continued growth would involve a combination of acquisitions and its own exploration efforts.
He said the firm had managed to capture lower contractor rates with longer contracts lasting five to seven years.
Rig rates have not started to inflate yet, Mr Gilvary said, despite the crude price recovery, which has improved oil producers’ balance sheets.
BP’s third quarter underlying replacement cost profit was £2.9bn, up 105% on the same period in 2017, and the highest quarterly result in more than five years.
Total revenues rose by a third to £63bn, while pretax profits jumped 84% to £4.2bn.
Chief executive Bob Dudley said: “Operations are running well across BP and we’re bringing new, higher-margin barrels into production faster through efficient project execution.”
David Barclay, head of office at Brewin Dolphin Aberdeen, said BP was buoyed by a rising oil price, cost cutting, and asset performance. A former chairman of banking giant HSBC is to succeed Sir Gerry Grimstone as chairman of Scottish financial services firm Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA), it was announced yesterday.
Sir Douglas Flint, who left HSBC in September 2017, will become SLA’s chairman designate tomorrow and take over from Sir Gerry, who has been chairman of Standard Life and then SLA for more than 11 years, on January 1.
SLA said: “We undertook a rigorous and comprehensive international search to identify Sir Gerry’s successor and we are very pleased that Sir Douglas will join the board and become its chairman.
“His passion for our company, his strong track record as chairman and his international experience make him an ideal candidate to lead the board as we continue to build our global investment business”.
Glasgow University and Harvard-educated Sir Douglas, 63, will earn £475,000 a year as chairman.
SLA is the result of a merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.
“Almost complete and ready to be commissioned”