BP Posts Strongest Quarterly Profit Since 2014 -- Update
May 01 2018 - 03:06AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Kent
LONDON -- BP PLC on Tuesday reported its strongest quarterly
profit since mid-2014, boosted by higher oil prices and rising
production as the oil major's efforts to return to growth pay
off.
London-based BP said its replacement cost profit -- a number
analogous to the net income that U.S. oil companies report -- was
$2.4 billion in the first quarter, compared with $1.4 billion in
the same period a year earlier.
However, its cash flow came in lower than analysts had
expected.
The profit numbers bear out BP's ambitious plan to regain its
position among the world's elite big energy companies and indicates
it is moving past its fatal blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico in 2010.
The company's production rose 6% in the first quarter compared
with a year ago as the company continues to deliver on a strategy
to return to its former size by the early 2020s.
But debt levels crept higher as liabilities relating to the
disaster continue to weigh on BP's performance. The company paid
out $1.6 billion in the first quarter, including the final charge
in a 2012 settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve all
criminal claims. Payments are expected to total just over $3
billion in 2018.
BP caps a mixed earnings season for the world's biggest oil
companies. Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell
PLC posted their best first-quarter profits in years, but investors
remained skeptical of companies that failed to meet expectations
during three months when oil prices reached their highest level
since 2014.
Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2018 02:51 ET (06:51 GMT)
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